Raven Rising, Book 1: New Gotham Adventures
by Outside85
Summary: Four years after the breaking of the Teen Titans and one year after the disappearance of Raven, something new haunts the streets of Gotham. Is it friendly? Is it even human? And what role will the Justice League play when the darkest Titan is suddenly amongst them once more? Raven-centric, later pairings, mature/comic-level content.
1. Prologue- the Breaking of a Fellowship

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or any DC characters appearing here.**

Nightwing's p.o.v.

I don't usually do this anymore, but tonight I am again walking down memory lane, back to my last days with the Titans. It's been over four years now, since the business with the Brotherhood of Evil was concluded, as we froze the majority of the villains with their own machine. We saved ourselves, an entire generation of young heroes; the Teen Titans. It was a great victory, one that eventually claimed the original team. Six months afterwards, we had not had a real emergency other than an odd bank robbery or two. Slade continued to lay low, we knew he was out there somewhere but we had not seen him since our fight with Trigon, except for Beastboy who had an encounter with one of his robots. Neither Raven nor Herald could find any trace of Malchior the dragon, whom Herald had sent into a different dimension during the final battle. The team did enjoy the first few weeks, but eventually we began to become restless and bored. After five months of nothing to relieve tension on, the arguments had escalated; little things that usually had gone unnoticed began sparking heated arguments. And six months after the Brotherhood we had an actual fight, Beastboy pushed his luck one time too many by entering Ravens room uninvited. I remember running through half the Tower after the pair, dodging the debris that Raven loosened from the floor and ceiling along with any furniture we passed. Beastboy finally escaped her by shrinking down to a microorganism while he was out her sight, leaving me to calm the irate half-demon down. A few days later came the first leaving note, Starfire; I still remember that as if it was yesterday; she had asked me to meet her on the roof when she laid it on me.

_Flashback:_

"You wanted to see me Star?" It was dusk, the sunset was beautiful that day, the sea looked like it was on fire and the night was slowly crawling towards the horizon from the east. Starfire had asked me to come at a time where we were sure we wouldn't be disturbed or overheard.

"Friend Robin, I have received most sad news from my home planet of Tamaran." She looked as beautiful as ever, I remember, even if she also looked so sad.

"What is it Star?" How she got news from that distant planet was mystery I had never solved.

"My sister Blackfire has perished, in an attempt to seize the throne of my home." Last I heard Galfore was still in charge up there, I still remember how intimidating the huge Tamaranian was the first time I met him; the same size as Cinderblock, but all muscle and heart for Starfire, who he had looked after while she was a child.

"Is Galfore all right?"

"He was grievously injured in the battle; he has asked me to return home, to take up the throne in his place." I knew becoming the Grand Ruler was not a thing my former girlfriend wanted to aspire to, because it would take her away from Earth. Our relationship was another casualty during the last couple of months, I had grown ever more restless over time due to lack of activity, and in the end I couldn't take it; having her hovering over me. I ended it the best way I could, before I risked I exploded in her face over something really insignificant, it still pains me to remember the heartbroken expression she wore on her face as she fled from me that day. I never wanted to hurt her, but that day I had to, for the both of us. On the roof that evening she was talking to her team leader and good friend. I knew the situation those past couple of months had taken also taken their toll on her, especially after our break. I remember thinking of any way that could make her stay when it dawned on me what she was doing, for purely selfish reasons, but I could not, so I asked her the only thing I could to keep her for a little while yet.

"Do you want to?"

"I wished it could be otherwise but our friends and us" she gestured with one orange hand to me and herself "are acting like we are not friends anymore. And this last time I have been feeling more and more of the homesick." I knew she was trying to make me say the magic words that would make the world go back to the way it used to be, so that we could be together, so that she could feel compelled to stay on Earth. I don't know those words yet, I doubt even Raven knows any magic like that that could be done without consequence. But that evening I could only look Starfire in her big green eyes as I put one gloved hand on her shoulder, like Bruce used to do when I needed to hear something important than usual.

"Star, I know how you feel because I feel the same and I think you should do what your heart tells you to. If you decide to return one day, I will be here or in Gotham." I can see the tears beginning to form in her eyes, I take one step forwards and hug her. She of course hugs back, gently for once. We hug each other for several minutes, she's was crying openly, I was fighting to hold them back as well. We then slowly release each other, ending with holding each other's hands. As we again look into each other's eyes, she slowly begins to rise into the night sky, slowly letting go of my hands. She rises about 5 meters into the air still looking at me with tear filled eyes before she rockets into the sky trailing a green beam of light like a falling star, never to be seen again. I stood on the roof looking after her till long after she has disappeared, before I walked back inside announcing to the others about the meeting I wanted to have in the morning without telling them of the departure.

The morning after I looked at my gathered friends seated at the kitchen table, Raven, with her hood up because of the fight with Beastboy, Cyborg and Beastboy, all are wondering why Starfire has not shown herself yet. I cleared my throat, announcing the meeting has begun.

"Guy's last night Starfire returned home to Tamaran at the request of Galfore, to take up the throne." I announce in a short fashion, nothing grand, just facts. I see their eyes widening, Cyborg's and Beastboy's jaws drop. After the news has sunk in they return to more confused expressions, except Raven who just closes her eyes, why? I don't know, possibly I was just confirming what she had already felt but not dared speculate about.

"Dude, she didn't even want to say goodbye to the rest of us?" Beastboy sounds like he is in disbelief, to tell the truth I still was as well, but most of all of what I had to say next, which had distracted most of my night before and I ignore Garfield's question.

"Guys in the last months, we have seen less and less action in the city, instead we have begun to see tempers flaring here. And last week we had a real fight between ourselves." Cyborg eyes the two combatants he is sitting in between, Raven at one end of the table, Beastboy at the other and Cyborg with his back to the wall. Beastboy sinks a little under the table, fearing the reminder would have Raven leap across the table at him. But Raven doesn't move, as if she wasn't even listening. "At this rate we are going to be at each other's throats in a matter of weeks and Starfire couldn't tell if we are really friends anymore because of it all."

"Dude, she's just overreacting." Back then I was thinking it was so like Beastboy to try and turn a serious matter he knows is there into something insignificant or just temporary.

"Yeah, she puts too much into the way we act around here." I was hoping Cyborg wasn't going to side with his best friend on this one, but he did.

"No she isn't, I have noticed the same thing. You and Cyborg's jokes and pranks have become more and more vicious in nature, your fights over food and the Gamestation have also escalated into something the rest of us had to intervene in before either of you throw a punch at each other almost daily now. I seclude myself more and more from the rest of you to ignore it, I even get aggressive when I am interrupted in anything I might be doing. And as we saw last week, even Raven is easier to anger." I deliberately named her flaws last for the same reason. "Look I have known you all for a good few years now and I really do consider you as much family as I can, but I really need a break from you, from the Titans and I'm not sure I will come back." Raven still doesn't move as I say what had been eating me for weeks, it's like a statue with her cloak over it is sitting where she is, I remember being slightly annoyed at the lack of response from her. Cyborg and Beastboy were the exact opposite, eyes wide and jaws on the table.

"Dude you can't mean that…say this is a joke?!" Beastboy was still in disbelief, I just shook my head at him. "But what about us? What about the city?" By then green teen had gotten up waving his arms, first at us then at the windows where the city can be seen from.

"I have known you guys long enough to know you will be fine if you stay, as for the city, if it really needed us, we would have been called out a lot more than we have these last months." I said as Cyborg edged around the table getting up and walks over to where I was standing. We look into each other's eyes for a moment, his brow and red into my masked ones, before he speaks.

"Rob I understand you, I've been feeling the same for the last few weeks too, I guess I just didn't want to be the first to go. I wanted to save this for as late as possible, but now is as good a time as any to announce it; I have applied to Metropolis High, as I never got to finish my education before I became what I am today, so I'm starting next term." Beastboy's frantic waving ceased moving immediately, a look of confusion and disbelief in his wide eyes. His look reminded me of the day Cyborg brought in a phony newspaper with 'Tofu declared illegal!' written on the headlines.

"You guys aren't joking?" His last hope of flushing out the joke, me and Cyborg shake our heads. "But what about me. And Raven?" He had stopped calling her Rae after she had chased him around the Tower in fear of a repetition. For the first time during all this, Raven responds, her voice cold and dead.

"I will remain here, what you do is your choice." Truth is I didn't know where she would go if she had decided to leave. Beastboy just took on a defeated look before sighing at the realization.

"Well, Mento has been asking me to come home to the Patrol." I knew why Beastboy didn't want to go there, but he had little choice that day, staying with Raven in the Tower would eventually have drive him mad or gotten him killed.

"I guess it settled then, I will hold a press conference this afternoon, after I inform the police and mayor. If you guys don't want to be there, I understand." But Beastboy and Cyborg wanted to be there, Raven didn't, I knew why and didn't pressure her about it. Announcing to the Jump City press that the city's own team of superheroes where disbanding was going to spark a lot of questions, especially at the only one that was staying in the city.

The conference was held at 15:00 in front of the front doors to the Tower that same day. Beastboy and Cyborg at my sides, I guessed Raven was in her room or on the roof. By then I had already informed the other Titan teams of what was happening, the last thing I wanted was to have them yelling at me, or Raven for that matter, for not telling them before they read about it in the papers the day after.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, thank you for coming. I have an important announcement to make. Over the last few months we have seen a rapid decline in crime, something I am sure all of Jump City is enjoying today. But it is also invalidating the need for us to be here, it is therefore with heavy heart that I today announce the disbanding the Teen Titans." The uproar from the press was amazing, everyone waving hands and pens to be the first to have a question answered. I point at a woman with a yellow block of paper, her name tag states she is from the Jump City Tribunal.

"Are the Titan members staying in the city?"

"Cyborg, Beastboy and I will be leaving the city, Starfire left for her home planet last night. Next question." I pointed to a man in a blue suit with yellow hair, I cringed inwardly at the choice a second later, it was a talk show hosts, one that loves drama, he immediately start stirring some up in usual fashion.

"So you are leaving the city defenseless? What about when the so-called super-villains come back?"

"With majority of the villains currently inside Jump City Penitentiary for the 6th month running, I am confident Jump City's finest will be able to handle them. I have already submitted an extensive file on each of those currently known to have operated here, on how to deal with each of them in case they break out. Next question." I point out a dark skinned fellow with a pencil, from the Herald.

"Robin, does this announce your return to the side of the infamous Batman of Gotham?" He asks.

"As of right now I don't know where I will go, or if I even will remain as Robin. Next question." A few questions were thrown at Cyborg and Beastboy, mostly about the future, some of them ridiculous. Cyborg the auto mechanic, for instance. I end up pointing out small, young, brown haired women who has been trying to get my attention since the beginning, I admit I picked her because of her size, I knew a lot of those present had saw blades for elbows, she wasn't one of them.

"Robin you have yet to tell us about your last team member or if she is leaving the city as well?" Out of all the journalists present, she seemed to be the only one who had noticed Raven's absence. The others begin to look around them for her, obviously they hadn't.

"Raven will remain in the city, and before any of you ask, she is unavailable for comment until she chooses otherwise." I knew this was true even if I hadn't asked her, if she wanted to talk to anyone, she would be coming to them. The slick talk show host from before yells, drowning out everyone else.

"You mean to tell us that you are leaving the entire city to one girl?! A girl we have yet to be properly introduced to?" It was my choice to do the opposite of what Bruce does, in Gotham he is an urban myth, or close to one, and it helps him, keeps the petty thieves scared. I chose to be public because Jump is not the dark city of Gotham, people here are different and I am not Batman. The other Titans, except Raven, liked the lime light well enough; I guessed that as long as we where there, the press would leave her alone. But he was right, Raven never talked to journalists and had a very low opinion on them in general, I think she called them vultures at one point.

"We are more than confident in Raven's abilities to defend the city should the need arise…" The guy was already getting on my nerves as he continues yelling, cutting me off.

"How can you be sure?!"

"Simple, really, because we know she can. I want to thank you all for coming today; it was an honor serving this city, thank you." Without another word we walk back inside, ignoring all the unanswered questions that were thrown at us.

I remember Beastboy was the first to leave after that, after we forced him to clean up his room that is. I guess since there was no hope of the Titan's staying together, he couldn't get out fast enough. The last person he talked to was Raven, an attempt to mend fences; I had enough decency not to pry too deeply into their hallway conversation.

Cyborg left the same evening. Where Beastboy's farewell was short and a little emotional, Cyborg's started off with him telling me how proud he was of us, of himself for being a part of it. Telling me and Raven in the living room:

"If we hadn't met that night, I'm not sure I would be here today." He said.

I knew what he meant, the Titans had made him feel normal; something he had missed ever since his accident. He had been the typical angry teenager that would have ended up doing something stupid if he hadn't met us. He said his final goodbye to me with a handshake and uttered a hope that he would see us again. After letting go of me, he scooped Raven off the floor in a hug telling her how much he would miss her. I knew he considered the ash grey girl his little sister and had so ever since his first car was wrecked, their bond became even stronger after she retrieved him from the distant past. Raven hugged him back and said she would miss him as well.

After Cyborg, or Victor Stone as he would be known as from now on, left the Tower I began packing all the bits and bobs that I wanted to take with me, which wasn't much since I was leaving on my bike which I had spent the afternoon painting neon green. I remember only packing a few clothing and toilet articles along with a picture of us all, my communicator and a normal cell phone. We were leaving pretty much everything else in the Tower for Raven, either as keep sakes or to keep safe. I wonder how I managed to squeeze my years in Jump City into that small bag, and today I regret not taking some of the things I left behind, Slade's cracked mask being chief amongst them. It would have been the center piece of my own trophy collection, if I ever get that started. After I was done packing, I went looking for Raven, I wasn't leaving before the morning, since I needed the rest and the paint needed to dry but I really wanted to talk to her for one final time before I left, I found her reading in the living room, sitting in the huge semi-circular couch with her hood down. She of course knew I was in the room before I even spoke, I was sure I had been quiet, but sneaking up on her was practically impossible because of her powers.

"Packed already?" Giving up stealth, I walk over and drop down across from her, usually moving closer to her usually made her move away or she would move you far away.

"Yeah, I'm not bringing a lot of stuff with me."

"You looked good, delivering the speech earlier."

"Thanks, bad time for you to notice." Getting credit for your looks from Raven was like winning the lottery, statistically.

"Oh I've know that since I met you." Twice in one evening, I knew she was hiding something. I decided to change subject.

"You're worried about the press?" I could imagine she wouldn't be pleased having to deal with those people and their questions.

"I'm more worried about what they will come up with on their own."

"Don't worry about them; Batman has managed to avoid them for years."

"To the most of the world he is a myth, I have a public address." She replies as she stops pretending to read, closing the book and putting it down on the table in front of us.

"No one is ordering you to stay here." I could tell she was annoyed, and I knew why. "You're mad because we are leaving?"

"I am disappointed, not angry." She replies while I detected the look of sadness in her eyes. "You and the others are the closest thing I have left that resembles a family and by tomorrow, you will all be gone. Deep down I knew from the day we moved in, that we wouldn't grow old together, but I guess I hoped that we wouldn't be parting so soon." I guessed she felt like we were abandoning her, we were heading into the future where she couldn't follow because we couldn't let her. Beastboy to his family, Cyborg to his new life, Starfire to the stars and I was going to need a long time to figure out what I want to do.

"Rae, you know I've said this once before, you have your whole life ahead of you, you don't have to stay here, you don't even have to continue being a superhero if you don't want to. And we all gave you contact information, so you can call If you ever need anything. We aren't stopping being your friends, we are just moving along with life." She only nods at the finality of that. "And you are always welcome to call." After that I change subject again to something more casual and we keep talking till late into the night. I knew she was enjoying it, or she would have left after the first rounds.

I still remember the morning after; we both got up early, as usual. We had breakfast together in silence, which seemed odd at the time, since it was the last time we were going to do it. Raven was going to be alone for the first time since she came to Earth and she seemed to try to ignore it happening, putting up the ice cold facade she always maintained around everyone but us. After seeing Starfire drift into the night sky two days before, the parting with Raven was the worst for me. She walked out to me as I was finishing loading up my bike at the front door; I was leaving as Robin, planning on changing into civilian when I got out of the city as soon as it was safe to do so. She stood silently watching me loading the last things on the bike. When I finished loading, I turned to face her, only to find her right behind me. I was surprised when she embraced me in a hug so tight, I didn't realize she could pull that off. I could only hug her back, we stood like that for what seemed hours before we had to break away. We didn't speak, there was no need to as we already knew what would be spoken. As I mounted the bike and started the engines I only say one line before speeding off.

"Take care Rae, be safe." I remember looking back before I had to switch into the aerial mode that allowed my bike to cross over the bay; Raven was holding up one hand in a silent farewell, her small form dwarfed by the shadow of the Tower leaning over her. That was the first time I was having regrets about leaving; that sight of her, but she didn't stop me.

I rode cross country from Jump City to New York, almost two weeks on a bike with the stops I made, and I didn't read a paper or watch the news during that time. I was worried that something in them would drive me back or into something I wasn't prepared to deal with. Pleased when I finally read a paper, that nothing was reported from my friends in it, I finally relaxed. I spent two years on the road, first in Europe then to Asia. I couldn't resist taking a few martial arts lessons along the way, especially with the True Master. I returned to the US only to learn that Alfred, one of my oldest and dearest friends, had been seriously ill. I immediately headed home to Gotham, planning on moving on when I was sure Alfred was ok, I ended up staying. Meeting the new Robin, a Tim Drake, opened my eyes. His spark and enthusiasm made me realize something; I could lead no other life than, that of the super hero vigilante, until the day my body would force me to do otherwise. And that my time as Robin, the Boy Wonder, was over, Robin would always be the sidekick of Batman and that was something I could never return to.

I am now known as Nightwing, the identity was the one Starfire told me I had assumed in the future she had been propelled into along with Warp. If she returns one day, I hope she doesn't think the rest of that future is also true. In one regard it is worse, crime is more rampant than ever in Gotham, and Raven is missing and have been for over a year now.

Malchior, the missing dragon, finally returned and decided to take his revenge on Raven for trapping him again in his tome. I read about it in the paper, Malchior was defeated by Raven after an hour long battle. But her victory came at a great cost both in lives and in money, much of Jump City was heavily damaged because of the battle, Titans Tower was destroyed, utterly. Up till then, Raven had endured three years of her solitary defense of the city and doing quite well I might add, but the public never seemed to warm to her, a feeling mainly fueled by the tabloids, they never showed her the gratitude she deserved because of the silence she met them with. And when Malchior finally fell on the steps of City Hall, after being impaled thought the chest by a black bolt, Raven was reported have hovered above him for a few moments before fading away and hasn't been seen since.

I met up with Garfield and Victor on the island, surveying the remains of the Tower when we learned of it. We had no clue how to find Raven, if she was even alive now or if the fight had drained her completely. We stayed in the city for over a week, looking for anything that could help us find her, and to tell us what had happened to her. Growing ever sicker of the press that kept following us around and occasionally hampering us when we worked. I remember Cyborg's encounter with the slick talk show host, the man Vic had told me was head in the press' crusade against Raven.

"Cyborg, do you feel any regret that you left Raven here alone when you left the city? Was it not irresponsible of you to do so?" I could tell, even after the years apart, that Cyborg was using every ounce of restraint not to pulverize the man.

"Look man, I know what you have said about Raven in these last years, she has given everything for you and this city, at least you could attempt to look sorry that she is missing. And to answer your question, I stand by what Robin said three years ago; we are more than confident in Raven's abilities to defend this city and she has proven that time and again. Now get out of my face, we are searching for her!" Victor had grown, I knew a time when he would not have hesitated to punch the man into the ground. Physically he wasn't much different, as so little of his body could actually grow, but he is now sporting heavier armor and armaments than before but in the same design as before. He had a lot of time to tinker, living in the same city as Superman, left him to only break up the odd fights and smaller kinds of crime he happened upon, anything bigger drew the attention of the Man of Steel.

Gar is another matter, he had grown in height, he's is almost as tall as Cyborg, missing only half a head, and that's impressive considering how short we thought he would end being. He is still skinny, but none of his weight is fat. Mento must have really begun taking him seriously, or rather; Garfield begun taking himself seriously. He is still in the old uniform, since the Doom Patrol haven't changed theirs, still purple and black. He is still the prankster we all came to know, and his smile would have been ever present if it weren't trying to find Raven. I myself have probably changed the most, I am as tall as Cyborg now but only half his bulk and I've stopped spiking my hair, which is pretty difficulty considering how short I keep it now. After moving to Gotham I changed my costume, a necessity, to not have me confused with Tim. It is now completely black, except for the light blue bird-like emblem that spreads its wings across my chest and shoulders and down my arms to color my middle and ring finger, and I've kept the mask.

We didn't have a lot of time for small talk during that week, but we are still good friends and Cy and BB can still fight over meat and tofu. But as we came up with nothing like a clue we part ways again, returning to the lives we live and hoped Raven would one day show up on her own.

And here I am watching over Gotham once again, taking on any criminals I come across and trying to solve the puzzles I get thrown by life and this job. The latest one seems to be one of the more interesting ones. For over a month now, we have been getting reports of people being attacked by a shadow, or The Shadow as the press called it, scaring them into a catatonic state. Only two attacks had witnesses, both victims-to-be of the night time muggers than ended up getting attacked by the Shadow that seemed to emerge out of nowhere. The victims were always left unresponsive, seemingly only reacting to something that was going on inside their minds. Tim jumped on the first likely suspect; Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow, who has been at large for months now. Batman and I both dismissed him as the suspect, it didn't fit his modus operandi, he scares people to see the effects, and the shadow was gone as soon as it was done. If it had been him, there would have been no witnesses that wouldn't also have received the doctors fear gas. We began dismissing all the suspects that could fit the description or the method of attack, none of the villains we knew of, like the Shade or the Shadow Thief, seemed like the culprits either, neither scared people and nothing was stolen. Barbara Gordon, having been retired from active patrols, now working as an information gathering agent known as Oracle, suggested that Gotham might have a new hero in town. Bruce only grumbled that he wouldn't blindly accept new people other than those connected to the Bat-clan in Gotham, but I know he has put a pin in the theory, allies are after all allies, even if you don't befriend them. The word on the streets seemed to agree with them both; the Shadow seemed to be only attacking crooks, something that scared their colleagues since they knew they were being hunted by it. But besides that, we have yet to figure out what the Shadow wants and more importantly, who it is. But we know it is either a meta, or has some means to get around the city in a hurry as it was spotted twice in one night yesterday in the span of a few moments in completely different parts of the city. The press had their own theories of course, one was that the Shadow was the manifest anger of Gotham rebelling against what it had become, which used to be one of the original ideas thrown out to explain the Batman, others thought it was ghost or simply a rival gang with a new gimmick. And all of us want answers, as quickly as possible.

So now I am sitting on a roof at the western docks looking for any activity from the bar in my sights, a rough place that usually serves as the haunt of Falcone-mobsters and other scum they allow inside. Hoping the Shadow will be bold and strike against such a place, our focus having gradually shifted from the usual to it as it has become the priority target. Bruce has been the only one to see the victims, and that he says it's pretty bad, means it's an understatement. A buzz in my ear tells me of an incoming call rerouted from the Cave.

"Nightwing, it's gotten another one; Crane. Meet us at Arkham, you need to see this." The name is what really hits me, the Scarecrow, a victim of the Shadow.

**Author's notes: **For all of you who have been reading my other works and perhaps waited for me to post more chapters for some; this is the story that's been distracting me from them, or specifically the Shadow of the Reaper story.

Also I would like to say that this story started out as an idea of a much more modest size and with a completely different tone and goal before it gained a life of its own. There have been several times during the writing when I thought it was time to end it, but instead I continued as new ideas came and more areas demanded to be explored. All that said, this story is something I've written primarily for my own amusement, sometimes to get over my own immense disappointments that sometimes comes with reading comics.

If you are interested in seeing what I have done; send a pm or a review.


	2. Demons of Gotham

Nightwing's p.o.v.

It's worse than I thought, as I look through the glass into the cell, I see a man completely lost in his own terror. It makes it worse that the man is the deranged, self-proclaimed Master of Fear, the Scarecrow.

"You're sure he didn't accidentally inhale some of his own gas?" Tim's question is a valid one, certainly it's a possibility, with the constant changes he makes to his formula even Crane is not completely immune to the gas himself and a new concoction could have changed unexpectedly when he mixed it.

"His canisters where found with him, intact and filled to the rim." Batman had already talked to, or rather interrogated, the people that had found him, a couple of drunks taking a shortcut though the warehouse district.

"So I see you have come to further unnerve my patients." Dr. Jeremiah Arkham has never been a fan of us, and we are not really friendly with the man that runs this nut house either, he's far too inefficient to keep them in and in actually helping them. "Haven't you damaged the poor man enough for one night?" That was another rumor; the Shadow was really Batman.

"We are actually trying to find the one who did this to him." I always was the first of us to open my mouth to answer charges like that, unlike Bruce; I am not really comfortable as being considered a potential treat to good people.

"Good luck, he's been completely unresponsive to us since he arrived, muttering nothing but nonsense about demons, shadows and being cold." We had come to the same conclusion looking at him; normally he is not shy of trying to analyze any of us when we visit him. Right now he doesn't even appear to notice us. Looking at him, we see him trying to fight off another imaginary foe in his straightjacket; a wide eyed look of new terror enters his eyes. It makes me think of the first time we faced Dr. Light, he never really recovered from angering Raven.

"Batman, was the others like him when you saw them?"

"Those that weren't sedated, yes. What are you thinking?"

"I can't help but see similarities with Crane's current condition and what happened to Dr. Light the night we first met him." One way I hope it really is Raven, but I can't help but fear if it really is.

"She is gone Nightwing, if she had returned she would have contacted one of you." Batman knows how much it had hurt me when we learned of her disappearance and that we could find no trace of her.

"Remember how many times we have encountered people we thought where dead?" I remind him, I know he already had a pin in the possibility that it's her, she was capable of doing what the Shadow is doing, but he's right, she would have called or otherwise made contact with me or some of the others. Unless…she was unaware that I'm here or that I have changed. We leave Arkham shortly after, silently mourning the many empty cells with the prominent name plates. People we would run into sometime in the future and it most likely wouldn't be pretty.

Almost a week pass after Crane, with more scared crooks showing up, before we have our own first encounter with it, or rather; a reliable witness.

Tim races into the cave on his bike, a somewhat smaller version of my old one, and almost throws his helmet away after he parks. Batman and I are already in the cave, going over the Shadow-sightings again to see if there is a pattern in the attacks; while we are waiting for Tim to return to have his input as well. That is one of the things I respected Tim for; while I am the better acrobat of the three of us, Tim has the mind to become the best detective of us all and Bruce is hoping that he will have a decent input; an angle he hadn't looked at yet.

"Guy's fought it, I've fought the Shadow!" Tim exclaims loudly as he runs up to us. You'd think his favorite team, the Gotham Knights, had just won the Superbowl, he sounds that excited. Batman and I immediately turn to him; we knew we were going to meet it at some point. But evading a meeting with Batman for so long as a new costumed face in Gotham these days is a new record, Bruce had mentioned it was a bit like the old days to him. We had no name to go on, no face to match or even had the chance to trail it, only a few security camera's had caught it but they were all of poor quality and there was something about it that messed up attempts to enhance the images. Not even the gutter seemed to know where it came from or had even the slightest rumor about where it made its lair. Some of the more superstitiously minded thought like the papers and thought it was the city itself that had risen to defend its people from the urban predators by taking a physical form.

"Tim, what happened?" I can tell Bruce is as eager as I am at hearing this, it's not so much in his movements, it's the air around him that seems to tense up and I know why.

"I… Well I was on the roof looking down the alley near 3rd Street, preparing to jump a guy that was trying to rob some poor woman. Just as I was about to jump, I see it, it was like the shadows in the alley really came alive, it looked like black fire was racing towards him. He turned around in time to spot it; I could see he was scared by it so I jumped as it reached for him. I landed on the parts of it that had reached him; it seemed to be hurt by it as it pulled back, but it didn't feel like I hit anything other than the concrete under it. I took up a defensive stance with my staff with the thief cowering behind me; the woman had apparently bolted as soon as the crook was distracted. I looked into the alley for a target but I couldn't actually see anything before I realized it had us trapped; it had crawled along the walls and behind us closing off the entrance to the alley. The guy behind me cried out before I saw him disappear into the darkness. I was err… caught unaware when it suddenly grabbed my ankles and pulled till I was hanging upside down, out of reach of the ground. I try hitting whatever is holding my legs but I hit nothing, like I was just hanging in mid-air. Giving up trying to free myself that way, I felt it, like there was something close to my face, it was like someone was right in front of me but I couldn't see anything. Suddenly I saw two white eyes, I guess it was, open in the darkness, they seemed to lean closer to me as if they were studying me, I try hitting them, but my staff just passed through them as well. That's when it spoke to me and said: 'You're not Robin, you really shouldn't wear his uniform, in this of all cities. Get home before anyone catches you in it.' The voice was really odd, it seemed to unable to settle on a particular pitch, or like it was put together by several voices. I didn't get to answer it; I only heard a ripping sound. The eyes then disappeared and then I was dropped to the ground, gently I might add, as I got up I only saw some of it move back into the alley before disappearing. I couldn't pursue it, as the crook was left like the others and after I checked his condition it was gone."

"What was the ripping sound you heard?" I guess Batman has a million questions, but I want to make sure Tim is unharmed.

"My, erm… badge. It took it with it." That's when we both notice the missing emblem on the left side of this chest is showing off the mesh armor hidden underneath it.

To my surprise Batman doesn't have any questions as he just leans back in his seat, stroking his cheek; I figure the encounter just made the new arrival all the more mysterious. But one thing stuck out, it appeared to know there was a Robin, and that Tim wasn't him.

"Tim could you try and draw the eyes you saw?" I ask in hopes of getting some kind of visual clue to the Shadow's identity.

"Um… sure." I toss him a pencil and a piece of paper, unfortunately Tim is not a very good artist and he admits the eyes weren't round plates. Batman knows where I am going with this as I scratch my head while looking at the impression.

"Your still thinking it's her, don't you?"

"If it is, Tim is lucky she didn't tear his uniform apart. But I can't be sure until I actually see it myself. But it just seems odd it would miss the armor?"

"Maybe it didn't?" Tim suggests.

"And she would recognize you because?" Bruce adds, I knew I would have to tell him this at some point, Raven would see past any disguise I put on now. We have a bond between our minds; I have never been able to use it for anything other than picking up stray emotions she sent out when she was not careful and close by. I'm betting Raven could use it for much more. I never told Bruce about it, partially because of my trust in Raven and partially because I am not certain what Bruce would do if he found out. He didn't trust her, that much was obvious, I know it's because of her powers, her heritage and because she wasn't honest with us Titans about her herself from the beginning.

"Raven once had to enter my mind to pull me out of a hallucination that was slowly killing me, there was a lasting bond between us after that, it was like she could always tell whenever I entered a room and I would occasionally catch flares of her feelings when they spiked. But that was not all." I sigh because this is the big one. "Bruce, she knows." I point at my mask at the last part, waiting to face the storm I expect coming from the Bat.

It was the fewest people that knew who he was, and most of them where in the League and were either approved to carry the knowledge, powerful or smart enough to figure it out. Tim proved himself to Bruce by uncovering it the old fashioned way and waltzing into the cave, practically, actually Bruce had been out and Tim had been let in through the front door and had entertained Alfred about his knowledge. Raven on the other hand caught it by accident, seeing my parents, Wayne Manor and Batman. Raven was smart enough to figure it out as I kept one of my Flying Grayson's circus posters on the wall of my room in the Tower, when asked I told the others that it was just from a good time I once had as a kid, though they didn't believe it because of the way I acted around the anniversaries. I can almost feel the anger radiating off him for a moment before he grows cold again.

"You should have told me about that when it happened, Dick. But if your right and it's her, why haven't she shown up here yet. She would know that you could be here."

"Raven only ever talked to people when she wanted to and confronting you on your own doorstep about me would break the promise she made me of not to tell anyone she knew, even if it was you. And I am not sure she even knows I'm here in Gotham."

_DEET DEET DEET._

"We got a hit Bats!" Tim had moved to the computer to file his encounter while I was talking to Bruce, so he was the one to notice the signal tracker that monitoring selected bandwidths for a number of names that we keep tabs on. I smile inwardly at the nickname, only Tim and the Joker calls him that. Speaking of the white faced devil, Batman quickly brings up the texted message that had been recorded:

"The Joker has been spotted in the warehouse on pier 54!" We all move out, the Joker is never a person to underestimate.

_Pier 54:_

We arrive at the docks 10minutes after we race out of the cave, arriving several minutes before we expect Gotham's Finest to provide us with their company; they would be getting the SWAT team out for it. As we arrive we only see the gang that the Joker had evidently been gathering streaming out of the single door of the warehouse he had been spotted at. We see 10 of them make it out, the 11th made it halfway out before being pulled back inside with a scream that's suddenly cut off. Batman and Robin jump out of the Batmobile and I quickly dismount my bike. We all take up fighting stances at the stampeding thugs, who only seemed to speed up at the sight of us.

"Save us!" One of them shouts.

"The Shadow is in there!"

"All of you, on the ground! Robin you keep an eye on them, Nightwing with me!" Batman shouts leaving the thugs in the care of Tim while we run to the door, noticing a black substance, like a plastic bag, covering the entrance. Batman slows down and pulls out a batarang. Within reach, he tries sticking it into the substance and pulling it out again, leaving not a mark on either. Nodding quickly to each other, we leap into the darkness ready to face the Shadow.

It's quiet in here, cold and utterly dark, I can barely see my hand in front of my face. Batman and I begin maneuvering around in the darkness, quietly and deftly avoiding the henchmen lying on the ground after engaging the night vision in our masks, which we quickly switch to thermal as there really is no light of any kind in here.

"I suppose I should let you two see." A slightly familiar voice says in the darkness, it seems to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Something like a curtain seems to fall from the east walls windows reveals the first few rays of the sun, blinding us, the light revealing the forms of some 20 curled up henchmen on the ground along with the Joker and his girl. The pair is stuck on the wall, in something that looks like tar. I think about someone covering them in the stuff before hurling them at the wall. Harley is upside down, tar covering her mouth and much of her red and black harlequin costume, wide eyed like the henchmen, clearly scared out of whatever mind she has left. The Joker is another matter, he looks like he is standing and waving at us with one hand, he's got one of those canisters that can shoot anything from lethal gas to a funny noise in the other, half his face is stuck to the wall. Unlike everyone else, he is giggling lightly before he notices us staring at him.

"Oh, hey Bats, I met your new girl, she plays dirty! Hey…no...fair…" He seems to be falling asleep, but manages to point above him with his free hand. We look up to see a figure leaning out of the tar like substance, eyes a blazing white. They regard us for only a second each before it speaks again, while I have had time to wonder if this was a new form of Clayface or Plasmus.

"We'll talk elsewhere." Joker and Harley fall to the floor, neither waking up as they hit the ground, the Shadow races for us instead. Before we can get clear, it embraces us in its darkness, for me in a familiar sense of intense cold before we find ourselves on the warehouse roof with the Shadow.

It has its back to the sunrise; looking at it, I see the white pair of eyes in the top of what looks like a man-sized whirlwind of shadows that appears to be spinning around in a slow pace. Rating it against the Jokers manic smile and meeting Crane in a dark alleyway, this almost trumps them on the grounds of being a potentially scary thing to see emerge from the shadow of some alley. But this doesn't seem to be an enemy; at least I hope it's not as we regard each other. Batman, however, gets off to great start of bashing that hope.

"What do you think you're doing in mycity?" He is staring at the figure as we hear the police arriving, I notice Tim has the 10 thugs sitting in a circle near the car and my bike. I know he has spotted us up here by now.

"I'm merely adding help where it is needed." The figure's voice keeps blurring, like a radio trying to tune into a channel, but it doesn't seem to be at all intimidated by Batman. I'm actually slightly amazed, I remember seeing Batman butting heads with lots of other heroes that wanted to move in and help, yet none of them ever questioned the turf mark when pushed, either out of respect, out of fear or in some rare cases because of the promise of the immense trouble setting up shop here would cause them.

"I want you out of Gotham; we don't want your kind operating here." He's referring to super powered people due to his fear that their presence actually draw super powered villains to them, the same way he fears he draws the insane criminals here to Gotham.

"Zatanna, Etrigan and Plasticman all live here, are you going to evict them as well?" It asks calmly. I'm stumped; it knows who lives here and only a handful of computers we know of have that data, plus our minds, all of it heavily guarded from outside prying. Tim decides to make his presence known, while the cops are gathering up the thugs, by grappling up to the roof top. "Hmm, seems I was mistaken." It notes to itself, but the increased speed the shadows around it are anything to go by, I'd say it is getting agitated. I decide to intervene with a question of my own I don't think it will answer.

"Who are you?" I again has that eerie sense of recognition as it turns its attention to me, telling me it had been completely focused on Batman the whole time, a smart move normally but dangerous.

"If I wanted you to know that, would I be wearing a mask?" The reply hits me with memories, very unpleasant memories of a mistake I once made.

"X?" I don't really believe it's him, he only stole my suit, and he wouldn't need the suit if he's been able to do this from the start.

"Cute, but no, I broke his arms last time we met." The sun is only minutes from emerging fully from the ocean, something the Shadow also seems to have noticed. "We will meet again." Batman leaps at it as it seems to get caught in a phantom wind and gradually evaporates, leaving no trace and more questions while Batman passes through its form and ends up at the edge of the roof.

"Let's go; we will need back up for this." My eyes widen slightly at the order; it's highly unusual that he admits he wants help from outside of the clan…guess the Shadow was more frustrating to him than I originally thought.

When we arrive back in the cave Bruce immediately heads to the computer to get the phone, needing the ride home to cool off again. Dialing a number he waits a few moments, most people aren't awake yet at this hour, before it's answered.

"Hello Zee, its Bruce, sorry to wake you but I need your help finding the new person in the city. Yes the one that's scaring people half to death. Ok, thank you Zee, goodbye." Hanging up he begins dialing a new number, this time there is no waiting time.

"Good morning Jason, I need a favor; I need to find out where the new person is hiding in the city. I have a strong suspicion that it's got magical capabilities…yes you can bring him out of you think it warrants it. I've got Zatanna working on it as well. Ok thank you and good luck." I'm actually surprised; he's letting Etrigan out of his box for this.

"You sure this isn't a bit much to hunt down one person that's not harmed any civilians?" Actually it is overkill; Zatanna is the second most powerful mage on the League's roster and Etrigan is on par with J'onn and Superman in sheer physical strength, only married with the temper of a demon.

"A thing is stalking the streets of Gotham, mentally crippling thugs. We need to get it under control before it decides to take out civilian as well. Now who is X?" Batman asks as he fixes me with a stare, another case I've neglected to actually tell him about.

"A mistake I once made. I made a suit to infiltrate a criminal organization, after I was done, I had it locked away. Some punk later breached the vault and stole the suit. He is a thief, nothing more. I'm more worried about his arms having been broken by the Shadow. I need to go a look up something at the library when it opens." Batman only grunts before we get ready for the few hours of sleep we can allow ourselves.

I spend the entire day and much of the early evening pouring over old news papers and news report clips from Jump City for clues and information I should have kept an eye for when I returned to Gotham. I am worried when I leave, Raven had done her job, but she seemed to grow less and less tolerant of the criminals she brought in and slowly her methods had gotten more extreme, for her that is. Many of them went to jail with broken minds or broken bones. I guess it didn't help that the press 'crusade' against her kept gaining momentum, the scandalmongers in particular where using her as an endless source of controversy. She even seemed to stop appearing in public completely after some time, though she continued to work with the city officials.

It seemed to peak some weeks before Malchior showed up, where a few people actually attacked her while she was apprehending a gang of luckless bank robbers. Raven didn't harm them, but she vanished leaving her attackers with the bank robbers. The jerks had the nerve to claim she was in league with the robbers, who were apprehended by the police shortly afterwards. I can imagine what Raven must have thought after killing Malchior, more than half the city was in ruins because of the fight, the crusaders would blame her for not preventing the destruction and the Tower was gone. She should have been hailed as a hero, instead she got labeled as an arrogant witch; she doesn't deserve that.

It's getting dark as I am walking down the streets, casting long shadows in the almost empty streets of this part of Gotham, crime and the new terror known as the Shadow keeps most of the regular folks indoors. I'm startled out of my thoughts when I hear a nearby roar of something huge; it could be Killer Croc or something else. I quickly duck into a dark alley to change into my costume, or rather, out of my regular clothes as I wear the uniform under them, as I figured I might be called into action before I could get back to the cave or one of the safe houses we have scattered across town. Changed and ready a moment later, I grapple up to the roof; leaping from roof to roof I can see where the roar came from, or rather the light show coming from the street it must have originated from. As I get two roof tops away from the one overlooking the fight, I can make out yelling, in the same voice as the roar.

"DIE INVADER!" It's Etrigan, and he's beyond angry. I know from Jason himself that he is usually able to curb the demons natural bloodlust, but I guess tonight something is different as Etrigan doesn't usually howl for blood. I feel sorry for the person in his way and for myself of having to try and save said individual. I leap across the last roof and look down on the battle in the street. _"The Shadow must be more powerful than we thought."_ I note at the scene below me.

Etrigan is picking himself out of the impression in the road he has been occupying; a look of pure fury is on his face. The Shadow is floating in a whirling maelstrom of darkness at the mouth of an alley to the left of me, apparently not wanting to attack Etrigan while he is down.

"I do not wish to fight you Etrigan, but I will if I must." I'm worried; the Shadow has a woman's voice, a really familiar one at that, I guess she is saving her strength to hold off Etrigan rather than disguise who she is.

"The Batman wants you found, Etrigan will deliver you…or your corpse!" Jason is too far gone to control him and Etrigan breathes a stream of hellfire at the Shadow, she doesn't move letting herself be engulfed by it. I expect to hear screaming, Etrigan's hellfire can burn through almost anything mundane, but when I hear none I guess she is now a charred stump. Again I am surprised, more pleasantly this time, when she speaks again, while her darkness breaks through the fire as a protective bubble. Her voice sounding flat and slightly saddened.

"I guess, there's no point in hiding or holding back if you will not listen to reason Etrigan." Stepping out of the fire is a terrifyingly familiar figure; even more terrifying is it the notion that I don't know if it's a friend anymore when she looks like that.

Stepping out is a woman about my height, with skin that is as red as blood, where it is not covered by a black leotard, or the midnight blue cloak that covers her body and arms, leaving her legs and hands exposed. The scraps around her ankles suggest she once had boots on, but now her toes are sporting some sharp looking claws, claws that are mirrored on her fingers. Ignoring the skin color and the claws, she does posses a very attractive body. It's not muscular to make her seem unfeminine, but it's not got any fat on it that would make her look out of shape or missing any that would make her look skinny either. Her hair is grey and reaches to around her mid back in length. Her face is the scary part, when you know how it used to look; it's still as angular as it used to be. The chakra-stone is still in place just below her hairline on her forehead. But she is sporting four yellow glowing eyes now, and her mouth seems to be filled with pointed teeth.

The Shadow is at the same time my worst fear and greatest hope; Raven.

8


	3. Meeting of Wings

Nightwing's p. o. v.

I decide I need therapy for doing this, but I need to stop the pair before they level the block. Leaping off the roof, I land in a roll halfway between the two.

"STOP!" I feel oddly uncomfortable having two demons staring at me. "You two are going to wreck the city if you start fighting now!"

"Stand aside thee Wing of Night, she is the Shadow thee have been seeking. You are no match for her, ye weakling!" I know Etrigan is ready to leap at her and me for interrupting the fight and his rhyming, bad as it is, is telling of how little control Jason has at the moment, since Jason's influence on him can usually stop him from doing it. I turn to Raven and hope I am not mistaken.

"She won't harm me, or you, if you don't attack her" The moment of truth "will you? Raven?" She keeps staring at the obvious threat, Etrigan.

"I won't, Nightwing, unless I am forced to." I know the last part is mainly aimed at the massively muscled yellow demon with the red leotard and tattered black cape behind me, but I know it's also aimed at me.

"Ye know this fiend?!" Etrigan asks.

"She is my friend and former teammate Etrigan, stand down." I don't know if she can pull off some kind of trick like she pulled on Trigon, but I hope knowledge of her identity is enough to deter Etrigan. It doesn't seem to work as he suddenly pounces at her without another word. I know Etrigan is superhumanly strong and fast and I don't know what Raven is currently capable of, but I hope I'm about to find out, I don't have anything that can stop him fast enough.

Like Bruce has told me time and again during our training sessions; when you leap at someone, you are fixed on a course and vulnerable to a fast thinking opponent if they see you coming from their front. He usually told me this after he had plucked me out of the air after I had tried leaping at him. I don't know if Etrigan is about to find out about this the hard way, since Raven doesn't flinch at the sight of the enraged demon gliding towards her, he looks ready to tear her throat out, judging from how his massive arms are extended in front of him, claws first.

Having covered three quarters of the distance to his target, Etrigan begins to roar with anticipation; Raven however begins to sidestep him to her right,_ "Too late Rae."_ I think if she was simply trying to avoid him. That's when I see her grab hold on Etrigan's left arm when it comes in range of her and forcibly turns his momentum against him with a quick grab at the back of his leotard, smashing him head-first into the spot on the ground where she had been standing. She quickly digs the claws of her right foot into the back of his upper right leg, while forcing his left arm into the air. He is now effectively trapped, unless he breaks his own arm and if Raven can hold him there. It doesn't stop him from trying to grab her with his right hand, but his own size is against him. He resigns to cursing again while trying to get free.

"Damnable witch! Release me so that I may make your pain reach a fever pitch!" Raven just looks grim at the demon squirming beneath her. That's when I see her do something I'd never thought I would see her do; she quickly turns his arm around slightly by grabbing his thumb, then forces all her strength and weight down upon the arm, it audibly breaks in at least two places. Etrigan's scream of agony will probably haunt me for a very long time, it literally shatters the glass of the windows in the nearest buildings, I can hear the frightened screams and shouts coming from the inside and I hope the voices are just frightened and not seriously injured.

Raven, having to break the lock by her action, is quickly thrown off Etrigan who jumps to his feet, his right arm clutching the useless appendage that is his left while facing Raven again, who also quickly got back on her feet to face him. I am quite flabbergasted, in my mind I can't make out how she managed that.

"It has been a long time since I last felt such exquisite pain. And to think it would be inflicted this time by a wench." Raven doesn't seem to care for the insult as Etrigan licks his lips. She is muttering something under her breath, I can see Etrigans eyes grow wide a second before he rushes her in what appears to be blind panic. Before his raised right hand can strike her, she speaks aloud the final part of her muttering in a clear and commanding tone:

"Gone, gone, O Etrigan! Resume once more the form of man!" I understand why Etrigan rushes her, as his features are quickly replaced by those of Jason Blood, who collapses headfirst into her, completely naked. The half-conscious man runs headfirst into her will as aura springs up to protect her, leaving him to crumble onto the ground before her. Raven quickly kneels by his head, whispering something into his ear. I wonder if I am about to receive the same treatment. "So do you want to talk here, or should we take it elsewhere with Jason here?" She asks ask as she looks up.

"Umm, are you all right?" I ask getting her to look at me in question.

"I'm fine, why?" She asks casually as if nothing had happened.

"You look kinda different." Raven sighs while getting up, covering herself completely in her cloak and hood, save from the part of her face that's showing beneath the nose, I'm relieved to see the second pair of eyes fade away along with the blood red color of her skin, returning to the ash grey color I remember.

"Better? Mr. Traffic Light?" I can only smile in relief, looking back, the colors were badly chosen. They where bold, drawing a lot of attention, which made me a walking target while Batman was always hidden in the shadows. But they where needed back then, I needed to show I was not hiding or afraid from anyone and Batman needed to see more colors than those the shadows could offer.

"Very. So can I persuade you to come back with me to the cave so we can clear everything up?" I know there's not much hope of forcing her to come if she chooses not to. But I need her to persuade Batman to call off the manhunt, before she has to seriously damage someone else. "I'd rather try and square things between you and Batman there than on another roof."

"Will Jason be welcome there?" Honestly I don't know, but he already knows Bruce is Batman. And leaving him naked in the street is not an option, too many questions and too many who might have been waiting to get him in this condition; Etrigan is a prized weapon to some and he has his own legion of enemies.

"I'm sure he will." Raven only nods as her shadow expands swallowing the three of us, leaving only the devastation behind. I can't see anything, everything in her shadow is in absolute darkness, but I can feel the familiar cold that was always there before we arrive at our destination.

The shadows brighten slightly as we exit the dimensional void we pass through, before her soul-self shrinks back to lie flat on the ground behind her, having landed us both in the Bat-cave before the computer. After all these years I still find it an amazing and comforting sight to behold. From what we have explored of it, we estimate that the currently known part of it undermines the entire Wayne Estate and that covers 7 km2, Batman only uses one for his entire base and most of that is storage.

The base itself is centered around a natural cliff directly under the mansion, where the most frequently used tools are housed on; namely the computer, with its massive 100'' main screen and the six smaller ones surrounding it, and the basic forensic lab next to it where the uncomplicated stuff is examined. The wardrobe holding some 200 Batman suits and all the other costumes we use are found in a smaller cave whose entrance is in the wall to the left of the old staircase that leads up to the mansion ends, which is directly behind the chair belonging to the computer.

Around this central cliff, three large octagonal metal platforms are suspended by cables secured in the cave ceiling; all three have two walkways leading to them. The one to our right as we stand on the cliff facing the computer is the parking lot for the Batmobile, which is currently out, probably investigating the disturbance I had just been at the center of, and the bikes; mine, Tim's and Bruce's. A concrete ramp leads from it to the hidden entrance of the cave, behind a cliff face in the private forest that lies south of the manor. The platform to the left houses a sealed chemical lab, where we brew the chemicals we use and where we analyze the potentially dangerous ones we encounter. In essence it looks like a greenhouse made of clear, hard, plastic, which looks out of place in the cave, partially because it's the best lit area, as the rest of the cave always resides in partial shadow so the residents aren't disturbed more than necessary.

These two platforms have walkways attached to the natural cliff, one on either side of it, providing direct access. The last platform, the most empty of the three, out of view when one is on the cliff, hidden behind the computers massive screens, is the home of two man sized display cases. Behind the dome glass they contain my first Robin uniform and Barbara's Batgirl costume. I still remember running around Gotham in that outfit, and how cold my legs could get in the t-shirt and shorts. I wonder how Raven manages that today, I only remember her wearing more clothes those few times we went to arctic locations and when it was freezing outside. The two suits are reminders for Bruce, why he needs a Robin and to honor the first person to pick up a Bat-mantle after him without asking and what it cost her in the end. Today Barbara Gordon is paralyzed from the waist down; the Joker shot her in the stomach, which shattered her lower spine, in front of Commissioner Jim Gordon, her father, in an attempt to drive him insane. We still don't know if the Joker or Jim knows anything about what Barbara is doing or have been doing, somewhere I hope the Joker doesn't know and just shot her because of Jim, it would only make him seek her out again if he knew more.

The memorial platform is accessible by the walkways from the two other platforms; there are no railings to stop on from walking right off these walkways or the platforms. Deep down I've worried about that lack and in particular in regards to Alfred who isn't getting younger. All of the platforms have a staircase leading down to more platforms beneath them; there are nine levels suspended like this, housing everything from training equipment to a vast trophy platform to a small R&D department and the miniature airfield with the two planes called the Batwing's. At the bottom of the cave, there is the small harbor, housing the high-powered speed boat and mini submarine.

The planes, like the cars and bikes, have their own hidden entrances in the cliffs facing away from the city overlooking the northern part of Gotham Bay. Bruce is always careful before using any of the planes or boats, they have the best cloaking equipment available, but the naked eye can still see them. And having them emerge from the grounds belonging to Bruce Wayne will raise questions. The boats are even trickier to use, since they use the natural cave entrance that connects the underground river that originally created the cave to the Bay. The problem is that the entrance is completely closed when its high tide and too many rocks at the bottom of the mouth at low tide.

And then there the final touch of the place; the hundreds if not thousands of bats that nest on the cave ceiling. I have cursed them more than once, either because I nearly slip in their droppings or because it lands on me. I know Bruce regards them as pets, sort of, as they are wild animals, but he has managed to work them into something like a trained dog. He can summon them by activating a small device that emits a low frequency signal that makes them swarm to him when he is out in the city. He has setup a series of similar devices in the cave as part of its defense system, but instead of summoning them, it sends out a signal that confuses their sense of direction making them swarm the platforms, keeping well away from the walls and the transmitters. Right now they are getting ready to leave for their nightly hunting; there are a lot of them flying around and a lot of screeching.

Anyone else would have guessed Raven was completely unimpressed by the cave, her hooded face or cloaked body certainly doesn't give off any indications of it, like she was already used to it or didn't see it. I know better however, I had never gotten the chance to let any of the Titans see this place for real; Raven had the best idea of the place as she had wandered my memories. But still, I can feel it; she is very impressed by the place, like I always was when I gave it the chance, it wasn't her movements that give it away, it is the lack of them as she hides it and that slight tingle of amazement I feel in her. I leave her be as I pick up Jason and head for the stairs leading down, there's a small medical ward on sub level three under the parking platform.

"Impressed?" I know she would deny it in the past, but I want to see if she's changed about at least verbally conveying what she thought as I can hear her following me.

"No." I remember the only time Raven seemed impressed by anything, was when Jonny Rancid took control of Larry's powers and warped Jump City into a twisted and broken version of itself. She quickly covered it up that time, no one else seemed to notice she actually liked that particular change.

I barely hear her footsteps following me as I walk down the stairs. "But it has its charm." She can't see it but I smile at this, none of the other Titans would have called it charming. Star would have been feeling claustrophobic and cold, shut off from the warmth of the sun and the lack of cheer the cave invokes. Vic would have been too busy with the computer and the vehicles to notice and Beastboy would be drooling over everything, being the massive Batman fan that he still is. Raven would be the one most at home here, besides me that is. We walk the rest of the way in silence, getting Jason's into a medical robe and into bed before I finally turn to her, Alfred would take care of the arm when we get him down here.

"So do you want a tour or should we stay here?" Raven rolls her eyes at me before they settle into the mixed expression of bored and annoyed before replying.

"What do you really want Richard?" She always was straight to the point if annoyed, but I am a little wounded by the lack of reunion joy in her, she can sense how happy I am, but I know better than to hug her even if I want to.

"I want a lot of things Raven; but right now I want to know where you have been? Why you disappeared? More importantly I want to know if you are ok and why you are in Gotham? Why you didn't want to talk to me on the warehouse? I don't want you end up in a war with Bruce. But right now, most of all, I just want to tell you how glad I am to see you gain." I should have remembered, with Raven, it never worked beating around the bush. She stares at me for a moment; I know she is considering just leaving me with a single word. That she sighs is a good sign she is not leaving, though I wonder why she is acting so strangely now she appears almost nervous.

"I…thank you; it's good seeing you as well." She says looking a little embarrassed to say it before she finds something else to talk about. "After the fight with Malchior I just wandered, this plane and a few others, I guess I wanted to find a meaning and purpose for myself. Before Malchior showed up, I was beginning to wonder if what I was doing was worth it for me personally. Everyone in the city hated me; I had to disguise myself when I needed to go shopping or I would get crowded by reporters or attacked by religious fanatics."

"I was coming from the library when I found you and Etrigan; I had been reading up on what happened in Jump City, you didn't deserve it."

"Thank you. But what kind of hero is hated by the people she tries to protect? And scares everyone that doesn't?" She folds her arms, looking sideways at the metal floor. Again, I am reminded that Raven thinks she is somehow irredeemable, that she deserves everything bad that has happened in her life and how heavily it weighs on her conscience that she thinks she is not worth any good.

"That's because they don't understand you, none of them know of the sacrifices you have made on ours and their behalf." It's true, it took us, her closest friends years to figure parts of her out, mostly by Beastboy's trial and error. And Raven never bragged about anything, I guess for her even the victory over Trigon was only a small step on a never-ending road of redemption. "And because they believed whatever junk the dummies in the press wrote about you."

"Should I have opened up to them?" She asks without looking up

"Had I, Vic or Gar heard about you giving an interview we would have been there instantly, to see if someone was posing as you." She smiles a little, she was never a people person, and talking to a bunch of reporters that wanted nothing but personal details was out of the question for her. She lets out a small huff with it, Gar would have been on the floor laughing had it been him. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"I spent a week in Nanda Parbat, meditating with the monks there, before I came to the conclusion that I can never lead a normal life, like you could if you chose to try…at least that's what I've been telling myself you could. I could have decided to stay with the monks, but I feared that without a release for my energies I would end up blowing up the temple one day. Guess I've just become too used to this kind of life for me to turn away now."

"Well I can't either, not as long as I can still make a difference this way. But you lived 14 years in a temple in Azerath, why would Parbat be different?"

"My powers have changed and grown after you and the others left me in Jump City, I forced my mind to become stronger to compensate for the absence of you all allowing me to flex my powers a little more. I found with the peace around the Tower to be good, at first, I felt more in control of myself and my powers. But I couldn't stop feeling lonely; so I began visiting the gym more often when there wasn't some crook out in the city to blow off steam and think of something else and keep busy." I stare at her, Raven engaging in physical exercise? Taking a quick look I could see it was true, I thought the other form was enhancing her body's musculature, it wasn't.

"I fear if I don't vent my powers on something occasionally, I could level a building if I'm not careful and it gets worse if too much time pass because emotions tend to pool. So living in Nanda Parbat, in peace, wasn't an option which left me with either; continuing as I had or joining Slade's side." The name brings back a lot of unpleasant memories, the only other crook we never caught besides X.

"He wanted you as his apprentice?!" Raven nods at my question before continuing.

"He talked as if we had something in common, that I should come to him so I could have revenge on the ungrateful city, that together we would rule it and that he really was my friend. I declined his offer, he didn't even dare come speak to me in person, sent one of his damn robots." That's a new one, Slade had been blunt with me and Terra had run straight into his open arms. But Slade could not threaten Raven with her friends the way he did me or lie about being able to teach her control of her powers, that he didn't come to her in person meant one thing; he fears her. And considering how she mauled him the last time they fought, he should.

"Did you ever see him again?"

"No, but Malchior mentioned that it was Slade that had brought him back. I guess it was the only payback he could come up with." I nod at this; it could only be Slade that was so low he would hit her with something that had hurt her the most.

"So why come to Gotham?"

"After I decided I wanted to continue what I had been doing, but knew I couldn't go back to Jump City. I remembered Gotham from what you told me of it, so I decided it was the most likely city to welcome a creepy hero like me and that Batman might secretly appreciate the help I could offer. And really, I haven't been meaning to step on his toes though I know he has this rule about it being his city and all that, I just figured it would be easier to earn his approval if he saw me in action first rather than asking. I didn't know you had returned here, before I saw you in the warehouse." It made sense; I always thought Raven would fit into the darkness of Gotham better than most. Many people would say they are both creepy and dark; I would say yes to the second but say that they both possessed incredible beauty if one took time to appreciate it. And to work in Gotham without asking, was the right way to get Batman's acceptance even if it was very risky. All the Leaguers he had butted heads with made the mistake of giving Bruce a chance to deny them before they tried to move in.

"He will want answers you know? I only told him of our bond 30 minutes before we saw you with the Joker."

"I know. He's coming back now." Her voice has gone cold, reminded that she had to face a potentially hostile Batman in his own cave; suddenly I realize why she was acting so strange, she is nervous. And she is right; we hear the roar of the Batmobile's engine as it enters the cave only seconds later. I lead the way back up to the main deck; I am suddenly reminded about the number of rules I have broken just by bringing her and Jason here and that I still haven't got a clue about how to break it to him.

As I walk up the last staircase I can see Bruce and Tim making their way towards the computer, their backs turned halfway to us, I can hear Bruce grumbling about Jason failing to report in. For some odd reason I have the urge to turn around and hide her somewhere, partially so she wouldn't have to face Bruce in that mood and partially so she won't tear him a new one if he gets on her bad side. I only hear her voice behind me mumbling to herself.

"Boys…"

Before I can turn around, something whistles past my ear, speeding towards Batman. Speedy once told me how much it freaked him out when Batman caught one of his trick arrows in mid air, one Speedy had been aiming at his back, it had only been a suction cup, but Bruce wasn't happy with either of us. It freaks me out that he catches this projectile as well, without turning his head, as if he had been expecting it all along.

He turns quickly and raises a Batarang with his free hand in one smooth motion, freezing when he sees me. Tim takes up a fighting stance as well, confusion written on his face. They both switch their attention to the cloaked figure that passes me, halting slightly in front of me. Robin's features become more confident when he eyes the projectile in Batman's hand, his badge. I guess Bruce got the peek he wanted as he turned.

"You found the Shadow?" I can hear the displeasure in Bruce's voice, I was bringing the enemy into his cave after all and probably because I was right about it all, though he is good at compliments when needed, I know it annoys him from time to time to be proven wrong, rare as it may be.

"Yeah, I did…Jason is down below, Etrigan found her first." First I need to convince him she is not an enemy, part of that is to remind him that she is quite powerful. But Raven apparently has acquired a shorter patience with people she's not comfortable around.

"I've been called the Shadow here, but my name is Raven." She lets her hood down while letting her black aura flare for a second as proof before she begins staring at Batman. I can see on Tim's face he is stuck somewhere between embarrassed and slightly amazed, boyishly embarrassed that he got beaten by a girl and awed that one of the Titans is in front of him. I have told him plenty of stories about my friends and he's long held a wish to meet them. Batman however doesn't lower his weapon, that's usually a bad sign.

"What is she doing here?" The question is directed at me, but Raven saves me the trouble.

"I am helping people that need it." It's a statement, not something to argue with. Batman's lack of response tells me really wants to try however, but he knows, like me, she deliberately didn't answer the real question. "Nightwing wanted to talk and he suggested we do it here."

"Most of Charlton Street looks like a warzone because of you." Bruce replies with a grinding voice, means he is agitated.

"I only deflected what Etrigan decided to throw at me." She is trying to be patient, I can tell.

"And you think I will believe that and after you attacked Robin?"

"I apologize for that, I didn't know he was legitimate, but I hope you will draw your own conclusion on the matter. Jason is coming to, in case you wish to ask him about what happened?" A noticeable groan can be heard from below. Raven moves slowly to the side, letting Batman have a wide room to walk to the stairs, without having to come within striking distance of her.

"Robin." Tim edges around the platform at Batman's command, passing me as he races down the stairs. Batman is like a statue, Starfire and Beastboy would have been poking him right now if they had been here, Raven folds her arms under her cloak, even though I can't see it, I guess she is wearing a blank expression on her face. I can hear the chatter begin below; indicating Jason was amongst the fully conscious again.

"Batman! You need to see this." Tim yells from below, Batman stares at Raven for a moment more.

"I won't move, if it makes you feel better." If I didn't know any better, I would have thought Raven was making fun of Bruce. But it seems good enough for him, as he slowly lowers his weapon and begins making is way down to the infirmary.

"Bring her along." He grunts as he passes me. I shrug at her as she echoes me and I let her walk down before me.

Walking in silence, I can't help but slightly admire how the meeting had gone so far. Everyone else I know would probably have been shaking in their boots of the thought of facing an agitated Batman as a first meeting, but Raven just acted unimpressed, squashing her own nervousness I knew was there. My musings are interrupted when I almost collide with her back; I guess Bruce wasn't expecting finding Jason in this condition.

"Jason, how are you feeling?" Batman asks, quickly regaining his usual composition, before signaling to me to stay on the platform above the infirmary with her.

"I shall be fine my friend, if I can have some painkillers. I suspect you managed to take the Shadow down, since I am now here? Or did you find me somewhere?" The redhead with the white stripe replies from the bed, a pained expression on his face. Batman remains silent, only walking over to inspect the damaged arm.

"Do you remember what happened?" He asks; Jason closes his eyes for a moment.

"Odd, I have no clear memory of the fight itself. Only that I managed to track it down easily enough, when I found it, I released the Demon. After that his anger overwhelmed me?" A realization seems to hit Jason. "It's here!"

"I am, but don't fear, I won't harm you unless you or your other self forces me to." Raven replies calmly.

"Ah, yes, I remember now. When I let Etrigan out, his rage at the sight of it rendered him beyond my control I'm afraid. Are you injured?" Only the last part is directed at Raven.

"That was his arm she broke, not yours." I reply for her, before she can say anything.

"I see, suppose I have to thank you for reigning Etrigan in then." Jason replies after a moment, we know it's because he also knows that all of the rampages Etrigan has been on over their long lives are ultimately his responsibility.

"He might hesitate before attacking me so blindly now." Raven replies. "I can mend the arm a little, if Batman will allow me to?" Batman only grunts something I can't hear, but apparently Raven can. And she glides down, I remind myself she is still bare footed as I follow her down. She walks quickly over to Jason's left side, somehow managing to get Bruce to move out of the way. Lightly placing her hands on the broken limb, she closes he eyes and softly chants her mantra. "Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos." The blue glow appears around her hands and arms, it slowly expands to Jason's arm, reducing the marks and swelling considerably before fading again. "You will still need a cast for some time; I cannot mend the bones completely I'm afraid." She says after she is finished. I am struck with a certain déjà vu, one where I had broken my arm after crashing my bike.

"Much better, thank you." Jason while testing his arm, only winching slightly now at the motion. "You look different than I remember?" He notes.

"Just a disguise." She replies.

"Your feet aren't getting cold?" I ask while pointing at her feet.

"Not really." The equally cold reply comes before she turns and walks back up the stairs. "I will wait up on top so you can talk." She says before disappearing out of view.

"So, was she always like that?" Tim asks quietly, I get a little confused at what he means, I seem to remember telling him plenty about the manners the Titans had.

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen robots with more feeling than her." I suddenly get a mental image of Raven with a bulging vein in her forehead and hope she didn't hear that, something tells me she did.

"She has to, or else things would be flying around the room. But she seems to have changed since I last saw her." Which had been when I was driving away from Jump City, I note to myself.

"The files need to be updated. We need to talk about this later." Batman grumbles to me as he also heads up the stairs, I guess his mind is already churning about what to do with her and possibly how to get her out of the city.

"Nightwing, do you know her?" Jason asks as I was about to follow Bruce.

"She's a good friend and was on my team for a number of years while I was in Jump City, I seem to remember telling you about them?"

"Hmm you did…but I felt a strange tingling while she healed me, something other than the magic she used, something familiar."

"What do you…?"

"Nightwing!" Batman bellows from the top deck, interrupting the conversation and making both Tim and me jump up the stairs. As I have longer legs I get up on top first, seeing Batman staring at the empty decks, with no sign of Raven anywhere. I hear some groaning down below and I guess Jason is up and about as well. "Spread out and find her!" I can almost feel the anger radiating off Bruce, I run to check out the memorial platform as Tim starts looking under the car.

"Could someone toss me a flashlight?" I hear Jason call; I guess he is not used to the dim lighting of the place as Tim tosses his to him, which to my surprise, begins scanning the ceiling with.

I move over to look into the chemical lab, finding it odd if Raven would choose such a place to hide, too bright, but it could be why as well. I guess Batman has gone into the wardrobe as he is nowhere in sight. Something in my mind doesn't add up, why would Raven say something then completely disregard it? She never had before, unless it was a source of extreme embarrassment to her or the years has changed her more than I thought.

"Gentlemen, she is over here." Jason sounds oddly calm in the situation. All three of us emerge from our searches to see what he has found. Jason points his flashlight at something on the ceiling, and I blink a few times to make sure I am really seeing this as we walk over.

Raven is hanging suspended upside down from one of the larger stalagmites near the stairs; her cloak seems larger now as it clings to both her and the rock. The only thing we can see of her body is her face; she seems to be sleeping peacefully. I guess her hood is up to prevent her hair from flying everywhere or it could just be gravity.

"Umm… that's a new one." It's the only thing I can say, I suddenly wonder if that bed of hers in the Tower ever got used or if this is a new thing that's come up. "What's she doing?"

"She is a demon yes?" Jason asks.

"Half, her mother was human. Why?" I ask.

"Some demons don't require sleep, others do. Some of those who do; sleep normally like humans, and some, like her apparently, like to do so in odd fashions and at odd times." Jason states matter-of-factly.

"She didn't do that while she was living with you guys?" Tim asks.

"We never saw her do anything like that, but none of us dared to sneak into her room while she was sleeping in there either. Besides for a few exceptions, her room was off limits to everyone."

"She can't stay there." Bruce says, obviously he doesn't like the idea of his bats might have to share space.

"I have been told that demons that sleep oddly are notoriously hard to wake once asleep, I guess she is a light sleeper if she sleeps as a regular person?" I nod at Jason, remembering all the mornings we spent together on the roof or in the living room before everyone else got up and then I realize she isn't reacting to anything we do, not even with the bright flashlight shining in her face.

Jason's explanation suddenly gets tested further as the alarm sounds. It's not as loud as the one I remember we had in the Tower, but it's still loud enough to wake Tim, in case he falls asleep down here. But Raven doesn't even stir.

"Oh great, Eddie is loose again." I can tell Tim is rolling his eyes behind his mask at his mention of the name of the closest thing Gotham has to a Dr. Light; the Riddler. Batman quickly leaves instructions for Jason to go see Alfred upstairs about the arm and keep an eye on Raven, before throwing a tracker onto Ravens cloak while Tim locks the computer. Jason halts me before I can run off to my bike.

"In case she wakes, is there anything in particular she likes to eat or drink?" I smirk at him.

"Herbal tea used to be her favorite." He nods at me before I run to Bruce's bike.

As we speed out of the cave, I catch a quick glimpse of Jason making his way up the stairs, with Tim's flashlight. In the back of my mind I wonder why Raven is acting this way and then I wonder why Bruce is acting odd as well?


	4. Morning Gotham

3rd person view.

Jason bounds up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, it makes his arm sting, though he tries to keep it steady. Emerging out of the entrance hidden behind the grandfather clock, he makes his way to the kitchen, the most likely place he will find Alfred in according to Batman. Jason knocks on the door before entering.

"Hello Alfred." The man turns around with a potato and a peeler in hand, preparing his employers late night supper in hopes it would get eaten this time.

"Why, Master Jason, this is an unexpected surprise…Oh my." The elderly butler notes the bruisings on Jason's arm.

"Yes, Bruce told me to go look for you regarding this." Jason notes at the arm.

"But of course, follow me Master Jason." Alfred puts the half-peeled potato and the peeler away and wipes his hands before he motions for Jason to follow him.

An hour later Jason arm is covered in a cast. While Alfred dressed the arm the two had discussed literature, a mutual passion of theirs, and Jason having met a few of the authors of Alfred's favorite books. Some of whom were dead many years ago. But as the cast is hardening and Alfred is washing his hands, something prods him to ask: "Master Jason, may I enquire how your injuries came about?"

"Ah yes, the arm is the courtesy of the guest in the cave. She was asleep last we looked, but I was told she likes herbal tea." Alfred quirks an eyebrow, usually only the clan members or the injured sleeps down there.

"Is she injured as well?" He asks and wonders if he needed to perform more medical aid, to him it appeared that the guest wasn't a captive.

"No she appeared not to be. She didn't stir the slightest as the alarm went. But I believe a cup of tea might do it." Jason replies as he tests the casts.

"She was undisturbed by Master Bruce's car, yet she should be awoken by tea?" Alfred has put it down to tact that he never covers his ears as the cars and bikes race in and out of the cave, even if the atrocious volume they produce would warrant it.

"Call it a hunch." Jason says with a smile.

"I shall go make a cup then, you are free to move around when you can't make impressions into the cast, it should only take a few moments more." Alfred says as he walks out of the small infirmary that is inside the mansion, the larger scale operations are usually carried out in the cave.

A few moments later Alfred is walking down the stairs to the cave with a steaming porcelain cup of tea on a metal tray in one hand, wondering where the woman could be sleeping, it would be unlike Bruce to let anyone borrow the bed he had moved into the cave when he had to sleep for days because of Crane's poison. As he comes out into the cave he is startled by a yawn and a tired voice that seems to come from above him, Alfred would have spilled some of the tea had it not suddenly drifted off the tray and into the air on its own.

"It's been a long time since anyone made me tea." Alfred is nearly speechless as his eyes find the cup and the speaker above him, Raven carefully takes a sip of the tea, still hanging upside down. "Umm, it's good, thank you…Alfred, isn't it?"

"My…my pleasure, and yes ma'am." Alfred stammers, still not quite believing his eyes. One of the stalagmites is apparently female and drinking tea. Raven seems to notice the confusion in the man.

"Oh, sorry, I have grown accustomed to sleeping like this." She says before effortlessly drops down to the floor, landing graciously on her feet and receiving the floating cup. A little tired, still, she rubs her left eye with her free hand, before cracking her neck once while Alfred seems to have regained himself.

"I am sorry miss, but it seems we have not been introduced?"

"Oh sorry, I'm Raven, pleasure to finally meet you." Raven says while pulling back her hood, revealing her ash grey skin and purple hair before offering her hand. "I've heard a lot about you." She says as they shake.

"Am I correct in saying you are the same Raven, Master Nightwing once worked with?" Raven nods while taking another sip of tea, obviously enjoying it.

"I am, but it's been a long time since me and Richard last saw one another." Raven still remembers the day the last member of her old life disappeared on a bike crossing the bay as if it was yesterday. The week after had been depressing indeed.

"Well, then it is certainly an honor to meet you at last Miss Raven. Master Richard has told us quite a lot about you and your friends." Alfred is wondering how much of what Nightwing has told them was actually true and what was merely fabricated to please Tim, and his own ego.

"Hopefully, not everything." Raven replies with a small smile, small enough to remain practically invisible, but when you work for Batman as long as Alfred, you see such minute things.

"Well I am sure the Master never told us of your sleeping habits."

"That's something I have picked up since he left…it's an acquired taste."

"I am sure." Alfred replies with a smile. "May I enquire how Master Jason acquired the wounds he has? He claims you are the cause of them?"

"You know what he is?" Alfred nods. "His other self lost its temper when it spotted me, he considered me an invader, let's just say coolant heads prevailed this time."

"I was unaware that Etrigan attacked young women?"

"He doesn't, but he attacks other demons on sight." Alfred quirk's an eyebrow at the comment, before remembering something.

"Forgive me, I never quite believed that part of what Master Richard told us of your, um, parentage."

"Well sadly it's true Alfred, I may not be proud being what I am, but I am at peace with it." She shrugs as Alfred smiles at her, somewhat relieved; Dick had noted Raven could be temperamental about that subject if handled incorrectly. "Are they still talking?"

"I am afraid they have left for another emergency. Would the lady like to come upstairs? I am in the middle of cooking chicken soup and baked potatoes." He asks as she turns to confirm the absence of the car and another bike.

"I would normally, but I am not sure if Batman would be too thrilled to find out I have been strolling around his house just yet." She says and holds up the part of her cape with the tracker on it.

"I see; the old issue of trust, I will have some brought down to you then. It should be done in about 20 minutes."

"Thank you, I will try and meditate a bit while I wait." Raven says before Alfred heads back up the stairs.

After a short round of meditation and the best chicken soup Raven had ever tasted, she returns to her stalagmite, to sleep in peace. Neither the returning bats nor the returning heroes wake her in the morning.

Nightwing's P. O. V.

"Holy torledoes Batman, your tenants have grown!" I say as I spot Raven, still asleep in the unusual position. Tim snickers behind me, even Bruce lets on a small smile. Catching Eddie had been difficult, but it was worth it, since we got some 20 of his henchmen as well and saved the hostages they were holding. If the tracker Bruce had put on her hadn't said otherwise, I wouldn't have known she had moved at all, the usual residents of the ceiling certainly didn't seem to mind her.

Actually a few of them seems to think she is a just part of the scenery as they have taken up residences on her. Two are actively squabbling trying to claim her hood as their own, the cloak makes it hard to tell, but one is seated near her right elbow, another at her left knee.

"Seems we missed a perfectly good chicken soup." Tim says with a disappointed tone behind me, I turn to see him eying an empty bowl standing near the computer. Inwardly I groan as well, Alfred is a master of the kitchen, Cyborg would have worked him to death if he ever found that out. And his chicken soup is really something you don't want to miss out on.

"She can't stay up there, even if she thinks it's comfortable." Batman says as he walks up beside's me to look at the sleeping woman that appears to stir.

"Yours is one of the better caves I have had the fortune of sleeping in." Raven says with a groan, before yawning, the two bats on her hood immediately fly away as their supposed bed comes alive.

"Well you seem to have gained the trust of some of the cave inhabitants." I say as I point to the two bats still dangling on her, Raven takes a single look up herself.

"They are better roommates than the bee hive I once ended up sleeping next to in Asia somewhere." I actually can't tell if she is joking, which would be a wonder in itself, or not. "Hey guys, time to move. " She says quietly, the bats she is talking to apparently obey her as the two fly off, followed shortly by three more that glide off behind her. Apparently bat free, she glides down to the ground, her cloak shrinking to its usual size as she goes.

"You know Garfield would be claiming you where stealing his act if he saw you doing that." I say as I cross my arms across my chest, with a smirk on my face.

"I bet he would, but disturbing a large nest of fruit bats teaches you to be quiet around them."

"Next you will be telling me you slept the winter away sharing space with a bear."

"I moved out quickly, for one, it snored louder than Cyborg. Secondly all the berries it had been eating made for a…interesting flavor." Ok, she has changed a lot. We are cut off before we can continue the banter.

"Good morning Master Bruce, Master Richard, young Master Tim, and Miss Raven." Alfred says as he comes down the stairs, I still have no idea how he always knows when we get back. "Breakfast will be served when you have returned from your usual showers." Tim smiles at him before running up the stairs. "I will ask if Miss Raven will be joining you, or if she will be staying down here?" He asks with a smile.

"I guess since Dick won't let me say no." Yes, I would have dragged Raven out of the cave in any circumstance. I just smile at Bruce and his acceptance.

"Wonderful, can I remove your transmitter then?" Raven asks behind us, I guess she either knew how much I loved using those, or guessed Bruce loves to use them even more.

"Sure." Bruce sighs, as Raven bends down to remove the offending piece of technology sitting on the edge of her cloak, tossing it to him as she stands back up.

Slowly we make our way up the staircase, Alfred forming the rear guard and Bruce in the lead. Before we emerge out of the grandfather clock, Bruce and I remove our masks, it has been a longstanding agreement that only in case of emergency will Nightwing and Batman be seen in the house with masks on, everything else could be explained with a costume party.

3rd person P.O.V.

Bruce and Dick head off to take their morning shower; Alfred leads Raven up another flight of stairs before showing her out to a large square balcony on the south wing of the mansion. Looking to the east you can see the waters of the Gotham Bay and the rising sun, looking south you first see a large forest before it gives away to Gotham City's skyline and looking west you see the garden and the mile long driveway that leads to the manors front door.

"It's a nice view from up here." Raven says as takes in the panoramic view.

"I think so too, although I rarely have time to properly admire it." Alfred says while pulling out a large, cushioned, wooden chair for her. The table is matching the wood of the chairs, round and decked for five people. Raven notes two things, the plates and utensils are not put up yet and that Jason is quietly standing near the banister to the south, staring at Gotham.

"You don't want help with the rest?" Raven asks Alfred, as he is walking back into the house.

"No thank you, it is my duty after all." He replies before disappearing indoors. Raven having the sun at her back turns her attention back to the man staring into the distance.

"Good morning Jason." He seems to break off of from his thinking at her voice.

"Good morning Shadow." Jason replies as he seats himself across from her, still wearing the hospital grown. "I have been meaning to ask you, the arm was the only injury I had. But how did you knock Etrigan out?"

"I, umm, had to take a peek inside his head for the reversal spell. He was running at full speed towards me as the change came, and you, well, knocked yourself out when you collided with me." Raven admits. "By the way, I'm Raven, Shadow is only what the streets have dubbed me here."

"Ah, forgive me." Jason is silent for a moment, studying the young female on the other side of the table. "I must say, you're not exactly what I expected."

"Oh?" She asks, guessing he already knew her name.

"Well both Nightwing and the League told me about you. The League said you practically knocked Zatanna's alarm bell out by walking into a room, according to her because of the aura you had." Raven rolls her eyes at the mention of the League magician.

"You were expecting me to be more in my other shape?"

"Actually, yes. Nightwing told me a bit about you and the other Titans, I didn't think Trigon's daughter would look so, well, human."

"I guess my father wanted to ensure I was able to survive long enough to be his tool."

"Makes sense." The pair is interrupted by Alfred walking out with the plates and utensils. "I don't suppose I can persuade you to drop me off at my apartment after breakfast?" He asks as Alfred retreats again.

"Sure, I just need to know where to go." Raven says with a slight smile. "Least I can do for the damage I've done."

Nightwings P.O.V.

I walk out onto the balcony, refreshed and dressed in a blue morning coat. Seeing Raven chatting idly with Jason, a red blur passing me announces Tim's eagerness for food, even if he was the last one out of the showers. I know Bruce is behind me in his usual black coat, even if I can't hear him; you never can unless he means you to.

Bruce takes up the chair that gives him the best view of the city, Tim and I take up seats between the two demons, Tim next to Jason and I to Raven. Alfred soon appears with a trolley, loaded with breakfast. There's bread, butter, cheese, ham, eggs in all conditions, a few slices of bacon for the guests, coffee, orange juice and a pot of tea that I have a suspicion will be Raven's.

Breakfast is a silent affair, none of us speak, three of us not having anything to eat since at least lunch yesterday. Jason and Raven dig in with the same enthusiasm, as I expected Raven got sole right to the tea pot, Jason and Bruce share the coffee, leaving me and Tim with the juice. During it all I can tell Bruce never really lets off his stare from Raven, obviously thinking about what to do with her, but I am kind of relieved he's allowed her this far. Alfred appears after everyone seems to have finished, cleaning up what remains.

"I hope the breakfast was to everyone's satisfaction." The chorus of nods and "Thank you's." brings a smile to the old man's face. As he turns to wheel away the now loaded trolley, he whispers something in Bruce's ear, a reminder for Bruce Wayne to go to work.

"Well, thank you all for the breakfast, but Raven I have to get home." Jason says causing Bruce to freeze for a second, I could tell he wasn't about to let the Shadow out of his sight just yet.

"I can drive you; it's not much of a detour for me. And I think those two have some catching up to do." Bruce says while thumbing in mine and Raven's direction. "_Thank you Bruce, and it's not some, it's a lot." _I think.

"Ah well, if I can borrow some clothes?" Bruce lets on that slight smile again as he rises from his seat. "But thank you for wanting to provide me with transportation Raven."

"It would be the least I could do." Raven says with a slight smile.

"I hope we can talk some other time, but now I bid you all farewell." I swear he would have bowed if it wasn't for the cast on his arm. After they disappear out of the door, I turn to Raven.

"So how long have you been beating Kori in the strange sleeping habits department? And why then?"

"I thought you'd stay down there and talk for some time and I needed the rest. Anyways I found myself like that a few months after you left, someone had let Mumbo get his hands on his wand and I had spent most of the night trying to catch him. Let's just say I was waking up with a good feeling until I hit the ground."

"You don't need me to tell you, you've changed a lot."

"I know, but I had to accommodate myself to being the only one left in Jump City, because the crooks did. And it's been four years after all."

"They thought Jump was up for grabs when we left?"

"Yes."

"So doing Dr. Light tricks weren't just cases of you getting angry?"

"No, I wanted a more permanent solution, after catching the same mugger for the 5th time in as many weeks. Quid pro que."

"Excuse me?"

"It's Latin, it means: something for something. I haven't seen you in four years Richard, I am not going to tell you everything I've been doing in hopes you will willingly tell me what you have been up to." I don't know if it's because she actually speaks Latin, which I know she does, or if it's because she likes _Silence of the Lambs_. Not that I have a perfect memory, but I don't recall seeing the movie in the Tower. "And I hope to find out why Beastboy is no longer green and is wearing your suit along that way." She says while pointing at Tim behind her, who is trying to suppress a snicker.

"Well for starters I can introduce you two. Raven this is Tim Drake, Tim meet Raven." Tim gets out of his seat to shake her hand, it seems somewhat awkward. "After I returned to Gotham, I found out he had taken up Robin's mantle so I decided to move on as well."

"Explains Nightwing, you know Star will worry if she finds out?"

"Yes, but I promised her that I would be in Jump City or here. Since I can't be Robin, Nightwing will tell her it's me."

"Starfire once got thrown 20 years into the future, where Dick was Nightwing and the rest of us where in less than perfect shape." Raven says, I'm guessing Tim is wearing a puzzled look on his face behind me.

"I hope she won't go looking in Arkham for you." I say with a smile while I receive a glare from her.

"You know the Jump City tabloids used to peg me with the 'Crazy Witch' tag?"

"Really?"

"Really." I am actually more amazed she actually read those.

"Why?"

"Some religious group decided to send a priest over to exorcise me, after some useless banter at the front door I chased him off the island. He went to the tabloids after that, the last threat he said while swimming the bay." Tim and I can't suppress the laughing. The image of, Raven leaning against a door frame with bored expression on her face while waiting for a rambling priest to finish is just too fun. Raven herself is giving us a ghost of a smile, proof that she also thinks it's funny, in hindsight. "Quid pro que."

"Ah, sorry, but I'd rather just tell you all of it." I manage after the laughter subsides. I begin to tell of my time away; the cross-country bike trip, my time in Europe, my brief time with Batman's old allies there; the Club of Heroes, the difficult trip I had crossing the Middle East, my stay at the True Master and finally my return to Gotham and why I decided to take up a new mantel.

"The True Master thinks highly of you." Raven says after a minute of silence after I finish, I quirk an eyebrow, how would Raven know what the True Master thinks. "I found her after I left Nanda Parbat; they pointed me in the general direction."

"Think it's time to spill Rae." I say with a smile.

"After you left, I went into a depression sadly. The Tower was suddenly too big and too empty, it was so strange with none of you around. Fortunately, for me, when you make a public announcement of the Titans disbanding, all the small timers came out of their holes and started causing trouble so at least I had something to do. After a while I decided to try and expand my capabilities, since I couldn't count on anyone to cover for me in case I suddenly became powerless, so I decided to study martial arts. All those videos and books you left behind were a big help." An indecent thought makes me wonder if those videos of myself were used for other studies, I dismiss the motion as she continues. "Slowly but surely I began forcing myself to use the moves more and more to become comfortable with it, sadly it caused the punks to escalate as well. At first they were unarmed, soon enough they started sporting more and more weapons. My tolerance of them reached a breaking point when a few civilians were caught in the crossfire, no casualties thankfully, after that I began to scare them. All the while the press kept up their ranting. A month or two after the crossfire incident, I was approached by Slade's robots. A month or so after that, Red X appeared again, somehow Slade had gotten him to be his new apprentice. Since he couldn't have me and couldn't find you, he just chose the only other thief we never caught. The fight caused a lot of damage and he kept pushing my buttons, I sent him home to Slade with a note to try better next time. It was, as you know, a little over a year ago he sent the overgrown lizard after me. With all the destruction the battle caused and some unwilling changes to my appearance, I decided it was time to move on. The Tower was gone and the press' crusade against me would only pick up in strength, so I decided then and there to leave. After that, I wandered, visiting the ruins of Azerath, seeking out other mystics around the globe for a cure to my condition. After I found it, I thought I had finally found peace when I stumbled into Nanda Parbat some weeks later. Alas I became restless, even if I was refreshed there. The monks never asked me why I came or who I was, they just accepted me into their temple. I asked them a few times for advice on matters mystic and on meditation; usually they would just give me a cryptic answer for me to meditate on. But when I was ready to move on, I was suggested to seek out the True Master. They just pointed at a distant mountain and said that I needed to prove myself if I wanted to talk to her."

"They wanted you to climb the mountain by foot? What condition was that?"

"That other shape you saw, Malchior cursed me with being stuck in it. And I seem to remember you telling us of how Kataro was escorted off the mountain after he took the easy way up." I remember how pleased I was that I was accepted, after all my complaining up that rock. The wise old woman and coming home to a room full of Robins. "Anyways after two weeks of wandering around the jungle, by foot no less, I found the village with the road that lead up to her mountain."

"Why do I have the feeling you didn't just, use your powers on the guardians?"

"Would have been too easy, and the True Master probably wouldn't talk to me afterwards. Anyways, the Bear tried to rush me, I jumped over him, giving him a shove in the back that got him wet. The Snake ran circles around me for an hour before I got hold of him. The monkey took the rest of the day, but we did have tea and a chat before I had to catch him. Guess what the True Master asked when I got up there?" I think for a moment before answering.

"Why didn't you just fly up?"

"Precisely, I just asked her where the challenge would be in that. I spent a month's up there, learning and meditating with her and her guardians. The animals freaked out when I first levitated myself and a few rocks."

"But she just knocked you on the head with her stick?" I guess; the old woman had a very strict sense of how things on her mountain were supposed to be.

"Yes, which sent both me and the rocks back to earth." Tim's snickering reminds us both he's still there. "When it was time to go, I headed to Gotham after a short stop in Jump, the island is just barren now." As her tale ends, one question enters my mind.

"You haven't talked to Cyborg or Beastboy?"

"No, Malchior fried my communicator. And the Doom Patrol goes all over the world, and the few times I've had a look at the news from Metropolis, Cyborg never appeared in any of them. Does he even still live there?"

"Last term for him now. And Superman is good at keeping the big stuff to a minimum. They were really worried about you, you know? We all came to Jump after the dragon, but we split up again when you left no trace for us to follow."

"Well, that's comforting to know. How are they?"

"Besides from being riddled with worry, they were fine." We both stare into the distance for a moment; surprisingly it's her that breaks the silence.

"I wonder how Kori is doing?" She asks the question none of us can answer.

"Wish I knew, but I hope she is doing well. Say, you can teleport, can't you just use that to go see her?"

"No, I can't do it instantaneously so I could risk emerging inside something or someone, I need to know where there's a free space. Also I was warned teleporting to other planets are very risky, even for me, I've never show it, but it does strain my mind when I use it."

"Guess we will have to get hold of Cy for a ride if we want to go visit."

"You know it's rude to decline the food a ruler offers you?" Suddenly a trip to Tamaran sounds a lot worse as I remember the food Star usually cooked and the stuff they ate when we were up there, not to mention that the 'everyman for himself' table manners aren't meant for human participation.

Again we fall into comfortable silence, somewhere I my mind I suspect Tim had run off at some point, leaving us to enjoy the sunrise, two old friends. I am hit by nostalgia, a reminder of the countless mornings we would spend together in silence going about our morning routines before the rest woke up. Me, making my morning coffee and reading the paper, while she was either meditating or reading one of her books nearby. After what seems an eternity and long after we hear Bruce and Jason depart she again breaks the silence.

"It's good seeing you again Richard."

"You too Rae, you too." This time the silence only lasts a moment, before Alfred strolls out with the morning papers.

"It seems Miss Raven and Master Jason has pushed you off the front page." The elderly man says while handing me the Gotham Gazette. Its headlines read:

**War on Charlton Street!**

The large picture underneath it really looked like a battlefield, with the ruined asphalt, bent street lights, the crater I saw Etrigan in and the shattered windows. One of four small articles at the bottom of the page read.

**Riddler Apprehended**

Reading the main article I am somewhat pleased that no one seems to have seen who caused the destruction.

"Miss Raven, I have taken the liberty of finding you a pair of slippers. Unless you intend to continue walking around the Manor barefooted?" I note they are one of my old unused pairs, the different shades of brown crossing each other made me think they were too old fashioned for me, it didn't help that Bruce has a matching pair somewhere.

"Thank you Alfred." Raven accepts the footwear, I note they are a little too large for her smaller feet, but it's better than nothing.

"They really clash with your usual colors you know?" I say while eying the slippers.

"Remember, I had to disguise myself when I had to go shopping." I just smile at her reply.

We spend the rest of the day talking about we had been up to the last couple of years, I give her a detailed description of the parts of Europe she hasn't seen, in return I get to know that she is in a meditative trance when she sleeps upside down and that she is actually aware of everything around her when she does it, but only to the degree that she wakes up in case something specific or threatening happens, in our case she expected to be found like that but would rather have Jason explain it. I tell her of my time with the True Master, in return I get a knock on the head for not visiting more often and a confirmation that Raven's powers has grown tremendously along with her control. So engrossed am I in the conversation I have with her that I forget that I haven't slept since last night, just like the mornings in the Tower. Fortunately Bruce comes home around 14:00; I head off to bed as I guess Bruce has a million questions for her I better not be around to hear. I just hope she is still here when I wake up.


	5. Bruce's Offer

"Welcome home Master Bruce." Alfred greets as Bruce enters the kitchen, dressed in a pair of cream colored pants, a brown jacket and a pair of black shoes.

"Thank you Alfred." He replies while he puts the briefcase he is carrying down next to the cooking island in the center of the room. "Is our guest still here?" He asks while Alfred returns to washing the dishes.

"Master Richard has been entertaining Miss Raven all day, but he has retired to bed shortly before your arrival. I believe Miss Raven is currently in the library, I do believe she is expecting you." Alfred replies while checking a cup for stains. Bruce isn't sure if he should be annoyed or amused that someone was a small step ahead of him for once, it was usually his forte to be that.

Most of his day had been spent wondering about the ex-Titan, unlike himself, Richard has self-restraint when it comes to his friends and their privacy. Which has left some blanks in Bruce's files that he would have preferred seen filled. And Raven's just happened to be the one with most blanks in it; she kept a lot of things hidden, even from her friends. It had only been two or three weeks before her 16th birthday, she finally told her friends who and what she really was. The two years prior to that, she had been vague at best regarding the origins of her powers, claiming it was something everyone on Azerath could do.

Granted she was doing it to protect her friends in hopes they wouldn't become a means to get to her. In that regard she was like him, he realized, since he himself kept a lot of things hidden, like the plans he had in case any of his colleagues became a threat to the world. It was for the greater good, and deep down he would mourn the day he would be forced to use any of those files. Unlike him however she did it so they wouldn't shun her because of what she was, and he had to remind himself that unlike him, she couldn't afford to be shunned.

Walking into the library, Bruce notes that no one is occupying either of the two stuffed leather chairs or the matching couch. After seeing her sleeping habits, his eyes begin scanning the ceiling, finding her floating near the top shelves of the stuffed racks that people normally needed a ladder to reach. The room has a high ceiling, like most of the mansion, but no windows, all of the walls are lined by racks filled with books, except for the small fire place opposite the door he entered. He notes that she has her hood down; something Dick had said he suspected she only did when she feels comfortable, and a pair of Dick's old slippers on her feet. He mentally notes down to have Alfred find her a pair of new boots when possible.

"It's quite a collection you have Mr. Wayne." She says, loud enough for him to hear, the books were mostly for show as many of them were expensive, though a few of them had been favorites of his parents. Currently he wasn't even sure what Alfred had stored near the top.

"Thanks, but I usually don't find time to read." Breaking off her scanning of the book title's she floats slowly down to the ground facing him. "I would prefer if we don't use any special powers around the house." He notes and gets a nod from her in return.

"I guess you want to have that one-on-one chat Richard warned me about?" Bruce nods once before he motions for her to take a seat; she takes the couch while he sits down in one of the chairs opposite her.

"You realize that this is more than just about you moving to Gotham?" Raven nods once while looking at the floor.

"Believe me; I would have preferred not finding out his secrets or yours they way I did."

"But you know, and there's nothing to be done about that, nothing I am willing to do anyways. Now it's only a question if I can feel safe that you do." Bruce states, effortlessly drifting into the Batman persona as he speaks. "I knew it was a risk it might happen when you started living with Dick and I didn't know everything I know about you now when we last met, and much of that new information is worrying to me."

"I will do what I can to ease your doubt Mr. Wayne and I understand why you feel the way you do." Raven reassures him, she also drifts into the ice queen mode effortlessly.

"Call me Bruce. But I will need to know what you saw in Dick's head, and I do mean everything." Raven nods once before she starts mentioning all of the things she knows about Bruce and Dick, both pair of parents, the obsessions of them both, where the Batcave was and a lot of other pieces of information and notes which bits she had figured out on her own. Bruce doesn't move much in his seat while she talks, he is too busy listening and gauging how much of a potential threat she was and if she was being honest. Finally she comes to an end. "And you remember all of that?"

"It is always in the back of my head somehow, that I am carrying Richard's secrets around, which makes it impossible to forget them on purpose, but I rarely forget anything as it is."

"And I can be sure that you haven't just read all of these things from my mind or Dick's?" He notes Raven doesn't appear embarrassed about the subject, actually she was an impressive study in control but she wasn't totally unreadable if you paid attention.

"I consider the mind a private thing, it would be like breaking into a house for me to look into someone's mind without permission, and I did ask Richard for permission before I went into his. But my powers don't work the same way the Martians does, from what I know that is. It's not telepathy of his order so I can't just scan minds like an open book, I have to focus on that task if I want more than surface thoughts and if it is not with consent it can hurt both me and the mind I am scanning if I go in deep." Bruce remembers during the thanagarian invasion how J'onn, the Martian Manhunter, was physically injured while forcing his way into a mind that was usually unreadable to him.

"So how do you always seem to know when someone is close to you? And that you could hear my mumbling in the cave?"

"I am an empath, I can sense the emotions of others the way you might feel a shift in temperature. While I was alone in the Tower, I trained it to become stronger. But I've always been able feel when someone is close because of their feelings, but in your case it was just an accurate guess it was you with the emotions I felt coming from you, that Alfred is still in the kitchen and Richard is upstairs. About the hearing, it's something from my father's side, just something I've always had, I have just not used it for anything practical before Richard left, and the Tower wasn't exactly most of the time before that."

"So how did you know about Tim?"

"I didn't, when I found him in the alley, I thought he was just some kid pretending to be Robin. I got the hunch I was wrong when I noticed the armor he wore under the badge but I knew he wasn't the Robin I knew, since he's shorter, younger and he's got a different uniform and shorter hair."

"So why not come clean at the warehouse? Assuming you knew Dick the moment you saw him."

"I did, but saying so while in the form I was in would blow the cover I've been trying to build here. Right now I am not ready to let the world know I am still alive." Bruce notes inwardly that she is not just hiding from the world, it's from her friends that didn't hear from her in over a year. "So for now, I am the Shadow."

"You know Zatanna is still out looking for you?" Bruce decides to change the subject.

"Jason let it slip you sent both her and him after me. I am hoping you will call her off before I meet her." Raven says sternly, Bruce notes that a hint of anger is now present in her voice obviously she hadn't forgotten Zatanna.

"I will when we are done here, but what will you do in case you do meet?"

"Leave the area as fast as possible. But I will resist if she tries anything."

"And if she sees trough your disguise?"

"I guess Raven will be revealed that day." She states with a note of grim finality, Bruce just nods deciding it's time to get back to the real issue.

"You know my trust and acceptance here is hard earned?"

"Your lack of both was drilled into us by Richard the times someone mentioned Gotham as a possible place to go after the Titans." Raven says matter-of-factly.

"You know it's going to be extra hard for you to earn it, considering the way you found out. And why come to Gotham knowing this?"

"Well, my mother came from here and I thought it would be a good place to start for me. I knew I was going to run into you at some point, but I haven't purposefully been avoiding you. I was hoping to prove through action that I mean well and that I can handle the place. I knew from the start that earning your approval will be hard and I guess we won't be working together here unless it's granted." Raven replies. Bruce had heard from other 'colleagues' that patrolling alongside him in Gotham was the real stamp of approval they hoped to gain, and he could tell that the girl in front of him wasn't seeking it for that reason. She sought it so they wouldn't have to squabble every time they met as was the case with some of the others locals who operated here.

"I have already thought up a way you can at least get my approval to operating in Gotham, I know you can handle yourself and so far appear capable of dealing with most of what this city can throw at you. But until now, only a few actually knows the Shadow even really exists, unless you have told the thugs you jumped." He says after a moment's silent study of her, going over what he knew and what he still wanted to know.

"I haven't."

"And the Joker knew you were a woman, how?" Raven sighs, what hope she had of approval was going out the window with this one, she had hoped the Joker was the big jackpot she needed after Crane.

"I talked to him, quite sternly, when I remembered what he once did to Richard. I guess I didn't manage to keep up my voice disguise." Bruce sighs at the memory of the night he had to bring Dick home battered and bloody after being treated to a night of the Joker and a crowbar. The memory still came back each time he saw the Joker. "What do you want me to do for you?"

"I want you to go into the deep end. Turn the Shadow into a villain, get familiar with and infiltrate the criminal elements and report back to me with anything useful you might learn from them about drugs, trafficking, weapons and stolen goods, all of it may be important." Bruce states the mission parameters coldly, Raven remains emotionless. "Actual meta-human activity in Gotham is low, and while I wish to keep it that way, the mobs could see it as a heaven-sent to get an edge over me."

"What if I am asked to do things to people that would prove inexcusable? Gotham's criminals have a pretty rough reputation in other cities."

"You mean if you are asked to kill, torture or otherwise inflict permanent damage to someone?" He asks.

"Yes."

"Do what you have to, but show all possible restraint when you can. If you are tasked to kill someone, you could have them 'disappear', contact me if you have to bring proof of some kind or use your imagination." Bruce says the last part with a slight smile.

"And if any of those people I am aimed at happen to be you? Richard or Tim?" It was the ultimate question for this mission; she could both gain the trust of one side while losing the others completely.

"Same as before, but if you can, try and prevent them from removing the mask." Raven thinks about this, it was going to be dangerous to both herself and others.

"You know Richard will protest." She notes, Richard had gone into length to explain to Beastboy how his missions with Batman were when Gar had insisted he could be Robin as well. One of the things were that it had only been under specific circumstances he was allowed to infiltrate a gang due to his age, this mention was one of several attempted explanations why Beastboy was not allowed to infiltrate the H.I.V.E. even then Robin had been extremely uneasy about sending someone other than himself to do it.

"It's not his decision and you still haven't said yes to anything, or asked how long I wanted you to stay there."

"I am willing to commit myself to attaining a good working relationship with you, both professionally and as the man who Richard looks to as a father. But I realize that you can't just give me a deadline for this, I will stay there until your trust is earned or not." Bruce smiles slightly and nods; she is committed to gaining his trust and willing to stretch herself to do it, even when he is throwing her into the deep end as an undercover agent.

"Good, there is only one thing I need to know. Where are you staying?"

"So far when I had to rest, I just found a suitable place to hang from. The Gotham Cathedral is a good place, when they aren't tolling the bells."

"You don't have a place to stay?" He asks.

"I don't have any money." She shrugs.

"You don't look like you've lived on the streets?" Bruce asks before he notices that both she and her clothing are looking more worn than he initially thought.

"Let's just say some wealthy people were suddenly missing a few bits of their food. And laudrymats are…easy to get into. Showers I usually managed with what were available, rivers and such." Bruce nods but can't bring himself to give her a lecture, during his days of training he had to steal as well when he was hungry. A part of learning how the criminal mind worked involved him traveling the world and living amongst them, part of that was to know the meaning of poverty. From what Richard had told him, Raven would be unlikely to beg, she had learned long ago that if you wanted something, then you'd have to work for it.

"I can make you an offer in that case." Raven sifts slightly at the mention. "I have a number of 'caves' in the city I am saving in cases of emergencies, there is one hidden beneath the lake in St. Patrick's Park. You can use that for the time being if you can keep it secret." Raven lets a ghost of a smile play across her features and there's a small shift in her eyes, part of him cautions that it could be a trick on her part, but another part tells him she is just happy to have a legitimate roof over her head again.

"I can teleport into it from the surface when I know where it is, if whatever goons I end up with ask, I can always say that I dwell on the bottom of the lake." Bruce mirrors the ghost smile.

"I will get Richard to lead you to it tonight. Just keep out of sight when you come and go." Raven nods, waiting for a second before replying.

"I…Thank you for giving me the chance, I won't let you down." Bruce's smile expands slightly.

"I know you will try not to." He replies.

Later that evening.

"You're WHAT?!" Richard yells over the table at the news that had hit him like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.

"I am going undercover as the Shadow." Raven states flatly, while enjoying the roasted chicken Alfred had prepared for them all, and the new boots keeping her feet warm. She had agrees with Richard's earlier mention; Cyborg could cook, but Alfred left him in the dust. Richard just stares in disbelief first at Raven for agreeing to the mission, and at Bruce for demanding such a mission to be undertaken by her, neither of them breaking off from their meals.

"Relax Dick, she will do fine." Bruce say's without a worry in his voice, before taking a mouthful of water from the glass in his hand.

"Bruce, she's only been here three weeks. It took me months to get your approval just to get out of the cave!" Bruce sighs; Raven rolls her eyes, mostly in amusement.

"You where 10 years old, Raven is… older, than that." Alfred had been stern to all of the boys he had helped raise, it was never polite to ask or mention a woman's age until she had given her consent. "And she got to the Joker before we did, and Crane."

"Yes Richard, I am a big girl you know." Richard sighs in annoyance; Raven had been a 'big girl' all the time he had known her and the most mature of any of the Titans, including him. Actually he was fairly certain she never had a real childhood, the training having eaten that away entirely. But still, undercover in Gotham's underworld was not a thing to take lightly, even for seasoned veterans. There were a lot of grieving families of policemen to attest to that. It was only two months ago he had seen the police drag the remains of one of their colleagues out of the river with a note stapled to his chest, warning the cops to keep out of Black Masks business.

"So, does this mean we have to fight you again?" Tim asks with his mouth full of peas, Bruce's features harden slightly at the boys manners.

"It is possible we will meet out there." Raven replies matter-of-factly, if Tim fears that encounter, he's not showing it.

"Could you leave my uniform in one piece when that happens?" Richard would have had to stifle a chuckle under other circumstances, but the whole thing didn't sit well with him. Just one day after Raven shown up alive and well, and then she's gone again and she notices his fouling mood.

"Cheer up Boy Blunder, remember I've seen worse than gangsters and gotten away with it."

"Demons and dragons don't sneak up on you with a length of pipe." Raven sighs at him, remembering that after this Richard would probably go demolish a punching bag, or some unfortunate crook to work out the frustrations she was picking up from him. Right now he settles with stabbing peas with his fork, like they were to blame.

"Dick, did I mention Raven is moving into the cave under the park? And that you are taking her there tonight?" Bruce asks his now brooding protégé, Dick just sighs before answering.

"No, no you didn't Bruce. Please excuse me." Without waiting for a reply he gets up and stomps off out of the dining hall, leaving the three at the massive table. With Bruce at the head, Tim and the now empty chair at his sides with Raven sitting next to it. It doesn't take an empath to feel or see Richard go from just grumpy to mad. After a moment of odd silence Raven voices her thoughts.

"Usually we had to involve a certain one-eyed criminal before he got like that."

"I always wondered why Dick always kept off that subject." Raven crooks an eyebrow at Bruce's comment,

"_Richard kept quiet about Slade?"_ She asks herself. "I guess you have found out about him your own way?"

"I know who he is and what he can do, but he has so far kept out of Gotham. But Dick never wants to talk about him for some reason, but when he did it was short and through clenched teeth." Bruce replies, still gradually cleaning his dish of its contents. "I was hoping to find out one day why Dick is so easy to anger with him though." Raven settles back in her seat, preparing to tell Bruce about what Richard probably never would.

"Slade is a manipulator, a criminal mastermind and an expert in martial arts. When we first encountered him, it was through a group of kid villains called the H.I.V.E. who had been hired by him to test us out, and leave a puzzle for Richard. Eventually we encountered the man and his robot minions; while he still kept his goals hidden he kept eluding capture, something that aggravated Richard to no end. Slade was first targeting Richard because he wanted an apprentice to follow in his footsteps and as the rest of us realized, they are both remarkably alike, Slade just happens to be better than Richard in certain areas. Eventually Slade played his hand and forced Richard to become his minion, after threatening to kill the rest of us, who he had injected with nanobots. Richard broke free eventually, but Slade got away. Later we encountered Terra who became a friend and ally before Slade poisoned her mind and turned her against us, the result is something I fear Beastboy will never really recover from. Before Terra sealed herself and a volcano in stone, she turned on Slade after he had taken control of her body and tried to kill Beastboy, resulting in Slade dying in a lava pit. Unfortunately my father brought him back as his lackey, he was nothing but a walking skeleton in his old suit during that, but Trigon had empowered him to be even more powerful than before. His job was to make sure I fulfilled the destiny of my birth; his reward would be to get his flesh back. But when the time came, Trigon cut him out and which lead to the only time Richard and Slade fought side by side, willingly. Slade disappeared after Trigon was banished. I was offered the 'apprentice' position during my alone time in Jump, I declined because I knew him too well by then. Later he got Red X to fill the spot and finally, the dragon told me that it was Slade who released him from the prison Herald sent him to when we brought down the Brotherhood of Evil." Ravens tale come to an end, she notes that both Bruce and Tim are listening intently.

"Well I can better understand why Dick hates the man now, thank you for sharing." Bruce says, while mentally noting to add a few things to the files.

"So Dick hates the man's guts because he never got caught?" Tim asks.

"More adequately put; Richard could only ever prove to be Slade's superior in one field, socializing. But also because he was always taunting him whenever they met, never failing to insult or belittle him and us. Richard once told me that the incident with the hallucination was one of his nightmares come true, him against Slade, alone. He couldn't touch him and we, his friends, couldn't see him or were in denial of his presence."

"Sounds to me, he used Scarecrow gas." Tim says after Raven finishes, she just shakes her head.

"It wasn't, he wasn't afraid that night. He kept injuring himself in his imaginary battle, if we hadn't been able to reach him in time he would have killed himself."

"And on that cheery note that Master Richard is still with us today, thanks to you Miss Raven. I will ask if the dinner was to everyone's satisfaction?"

"I was delicious as always Alfred, thank you." Bruce replies, he would probably have starved or lived off baked beans if it wasn't for his oldest friend.

"Yeah it was really good tonight." Tim seconds, when the butler looks at him.

"Even if I've only been here a short while, I know I will miss your cooking Alfred, thank you." Raven says letting a small smile bless the old man, something that warms his heart considering how many times Richard had told them of the rarity of the 'Raven smiles'.

The seated begins to rise, while Alfred begins to clear out the table, Raven decides to help him out by levitating most of the pieces he can't carry to the trolley on the first go. Earning her a small note that it really was his job, Tim just smirks.

"I guess we better go find my former leader." Raven says while the trio is walking out of the dining hall. "By the way Bruce, is there any reading material I could borrow, in case I have down time?"

"Reminds me, the computer down there needs an update, but you can take a few books from the library if you want. I need to get a disk from the cave you will need." Bruce says before walking off, leaving Tim and Raven alone.

"I never got to ask, how did you end up here?" Raven says while walking down to the library, well aware of the young boy sneaking after her.

"I was a big fan of detectives, and I kind of got into the whole thing myself. Like all the cops and half the city I tried figuring Batman out, I just happened to succeed. Of course he was mad when I turned up here, but I managed to impress him with my detective skills before he agreed to train me. Unfortunately, Robin is followed by tragedy I guess; I lost my parents during one of the many gang wars in this city. Completely unrelated to what I'm doing…they didn't even know about it." Raven regrets asking, feeling the sorrow washing off him.

"Sorry I asked."

"It's ok, I miss them but Dick, Bruce and Alfred do what they can." Tim says halfheartedly, Raven feels sorry for him and somewhere envied the orphans in the house, they where all fighting for their parents memories, while she was literally fighting her father's influence and had grown estranged to her mother.

She ends up finding four books she wanted to read, meeting up with Bruce he hands her a disc along with a short instruction on how to update the computer. Bruce had dragged Nightwing out of the cave as well, still grumpy. After a short round of farewells, and a bag of tea-letters from Alfred and she is ready to go. Forming a disk for Nightwing to stand on with her, the former Titans flies off into the Gotham night sky. After a short while Raven decides to break the silence between them, Nightwing's anger is beginning t vex her.

"You don't have to worry about me you know." Nightwing sighs at her mention.

"I know you can do it, but it doesn't mean I like this. I have seen too many good undercover cops getting pulled out of the river or worse places. And I guess you remember how it was when we sent Cy into the H.I.V.E." The pair falls into silence again as they fly above the suburbs, it doesn't last long.

"You know, I thought I had to go out of character to get him to let me have a chance?" She asks.

"Don't let that fool you; he is moving you into a spot where he can control you, without you knowing it."

"If that amuses him." She shrugs.

"Rae, he might just be doing this to have some dirt on you, a reason to hunt you down!"

"Dick, stop being paranoid about the man, besides if that's his game, I've got dirt on him as well." Richards's eyes widen slightly, his mind getting flooded by images of tabloid papers with the story of the century: Batman Revealed!

"You wouldn't."

"No?" She says in a flat tone. "Like I said to you and Etrigan, I won't attack unless provoked." Nightwing sighs, giving up arguing about this. "And I knew the risk involved in coming here." She adds somewhere Nightwing thinks there is something about all of this he should know but he isn't certain, for some reason it just seemed to have gone far too smoothly for her.

"Just set us down in the trees then follow me." He instructs as they spot the park.

Saint Patrick's Park is the largest in Gotham, the size of several city blocks, and has been that way since it was founded by the Irish immigrants who dominated this area of Gotham at the turn of the century. Now it's surrounded by Gotham's towering skyscrapers, the park offers a needed relief for the many workers who are stuck in offices all day. Much of the park is actual forest, but it has its open spaces, like the lake in its center and the open field that's often been used for open-air concerts. Of course the same qualities that makes the park appealing to people in the day time, makes it a haunt of thieves and muggers during the night. It has been rumored in the city that Batman had faced Killer Croc and Poison Ivy in it several times; Nightwing had a count of 5 for Croc and 3 for Ivy. Raven drops Nightwing into the trees, while she disappears from sight.

Nightwing moves through the shadow of the trees, while keeping off the nearby trail he is almost completely silent as he moves. Leaving the cover of the trees he enters one of the secluded clearings of the park; the Circle of Emperors or more commonly known as the Circle of Fools amongst the gangs. It's an old work of art, erected around 20 years ago in one of the countless attempts to freshen up the park; 12 stone sculptures of Rome's most famous emperor's stand around the clearing facing the visitors.

Here the likes of Caesar Augusts stands alongside Nero, Caligula, Commodus and his father Marcus Aurelius and others less known by the general public. Nightwing doesn't stop to admire the sculptures, but quickly moves to a certain statue, Caligula, taking a careful look around him, making sure no one is there. Swiftly he reaches behind the statue and hits a concealed button on the exposed right foot of the statue, causing a small hatch to open behind the statue. He quickly jumps down the open hatch before pulling it shut again, leaving no trace on the surface he was ever there.

He is now in a tunnel, that's low enough to force him to keep his head down, moving a few meters in total darkness, he extends his left hand and hits a button that turns on the light behind his head.

"You can come out now Rae." Nightwing's shadow slowly rises before separating itself, one part falling back to its normal position at his feet, the other taking the form of a cloaked figure.

"You hid the doorknob on the foot of the emperor that was called 'little boots', nice touch." She says while slinging the faded green backpack she had borrowed over her shoulder.

"Only you would notice that little touch." Raven just smiles at the comment, waiting for Nightwing to lead her down the sloping concrete tunnel.

After a few moments of silent walking and a few turns, the pair emerges into a big room sighing in relief as they straighten their backs again. A few pieces of furniture are placed around the walls, there's a single bed, a desk, a first aid cabinet and a wall mounted computer and a small kitchen with a fridge Nightwing knows is stocked with supplies and water, all covered by thin sheets of transparent plastic. Nightwing notes the stuffy smell of the room and hits a button that starts a small ventilator in the ceiling.

"Charming." Ravens only comment to her new home for the time being. Nightwing has to agree with her sarcasm; to him it reminds him of a wartime bunker he visited in France.

"A few buckets of blue paint and it will be home sweet home." He replies with a smile, even if he can't see them with her back turned towards him, he knows her eyes are rolling around in her head at the joke. She uses her power to gather up all the plastics, before compressing them all into a tiny ball, using the same power she apparently sets the ball on fire making it even smaller. The compressed plastic ball is flung at him, aiming for his head; he easily catches it before it makes impact. "Well you flip is still good."

"Thanks, but my cooking has improved," Raven replies while dropping her bag on the bed before she opens it, retrieving Bruce's disk. "along with a few other things." She continues to start up the computer, inserting the disc as soon as the operating system has loaded. They wait a few moments, watching several reboots as the computer updates itself. Finishing the upload the screen flickers for a second before an image of the cave under the mansion appears, along with the man who made it.

"Good, the computer is now updated with the files from the computer here. Nightwing I need you down by the docks when you are done there. Raven, good luck." The Batman doesn't leave time for objections or any courtesies, Nightwing sighs after the Caped Crusader signs off.

"Well I guess this is it, for the time being." He says, melodrama oozing off him.

"Don't worry Boy Wonder; I haven't killed demons and dragons to fall to a guy with a lead pipe. Who knows, I might just pull this off."

"Good luck then Rea." He says as he gives her a hug.

"Thank you Richard, just remember if you see me out there, I am the Shadow." She replies as she returns it.

"I will, Shadow." Nightwing says before heading out the tunnel again, leaving Raven alone to browse over the multitude of criminals on record.

Early that morning in the bat cave, Nightwing's p.o.v.

Why couldn't there have been at least one troublemaker? I feel restless and greatly annoyed. And I have been like that ever since leaving Raven in the cave. Pulling off my mask I slump down on the stairs leading up to the mansion, sighing heavily I lean back staring at the ceiling and the returning bats.

"I suppose you want to yell at me now, saying that I am unreasonable to send her into this?" Bruce's calm voice alarms me of the master of stealth emerging out of the wardrobe, wearing the costume, minus the cape, making him look oddly small.

"As much as I want to, I know your reasoning will make its way to me eventually. But I don't approve of this, it's too dangerous and she isn't trained to do it." I sigh again, it has always been like this, I disapprove and throw a tantrum and Bruce would talk me down to earth with cold logic.

"She is a grown woman, she can make her own decisions. Something you never failed to point out when you were telling Tim stories." I rub my eyes for no reason other than having an excuse not to look at Bruce.

"I know, it's just, that after having been missing a year without a word, I find her again only to see her disappear again after only a day." A few seconds pass before I ask the question. "Does she really have to do this?" Bruce seems to think for this a moment, while pulling off his armored gloves.

"As much as I would like to trust her just by your word, I can't. She knows things she shouldn't know, not before I approved of it at least."

"And her keeping tight for so long about it means nothing?"

"It does, it's why she has a chance, but I need to know she can handle high-stress situations with it, and I need to know immediately. That means she can't just be reacting to whatever happens somewhere in the city while she is far away, I need her in the thick of it for an extended period of time. Speaking of reactions, she told us about Slade after you stormed out from dinner." Thank you Raven, like my night wasn't complicated enough.

"How much time I spent trying to capture him? How much I wanted to do so? And how close I am to becoming him?"

"No, just that he is your recurring nightmare that won't go away until the day you defeat him the way you need to."

"I never defeated him in any way, as she is right, he and I are so much alike that some days when I look back, I can't tell us apart." Bruce just smiles at me as he removes the mask.

"Does he have friends?" That sentence left me speechless.

The following morning, Richard's room.

I put on my mask before reaching for the circular communicator I have lying in a drawer near my bed. Bruce's words had hit something inside of me, Slade doesn't have friends; he has minions. Minions that he won't hesitate to abuse or dispose of if he feels like it, I respect and treasure my friends. And it is out of respect I am about to do this, they deserve to know. I dial up two numbers, hoping they aren't busy. Fortune is with me as the screen splits, revealing a clearly still-in-bed changeling and a grumpy looking Victor.

"Hey guys."

"Yo Rob, B, it's been a while." I smirk at the screen; Cyborg still calls me Robin, even after a year of knowing that I'm not going by that anymore.

"Dude do you know what time it is here?" Beastboy complains.

"I do Gar, and it's the only time I know I get both of you at the same time." Vic would be heading out in a few moments and the Doom Patrol generally has very little down time or a generally unpredictable schedule.

"Oh, sounds important. What's up in Gotham?" Cyborg asks. This was it, and I had to keep them from rushing here.

"I've found Raven." Victor freezes completely, Gar's screen tumbles about as I guess he just fell out of bed.

"WHAT?! How? When? Where?" Cyborg's flow of questions will continue if I don't stop him.

"Listen, Raven showed up in Gotham a few weeks ago under a new alias. I only leaned that it was Raven yesterday."

"You pin her to the ground if you have to Rob, I will be right over!" Cyborg yells as his screen begins shifting violently even if he doesn't know where I am; his nifty little tracking unit is currently somewhere in Gotham's sewers.

"VIC! She is not here anymore."

"What?!"

"Dude, Raven shows up at your place just to disappear again." Beastboy enters the conversation again, tangled up in his sheet.

"Guys, this will take a bit of explaining, but I need you to calm down." I see both screens shake a bit as the pair sit down.

"Ok Rob, spill."

"We had a series of incidents here, were crooks were attacked and scared into a near-catatonic state. After several weeks we encountered the thing responsible only for it to escape effortlessly, much to Batman's frustration. Yesterday I found out it was Raven, she has decided to move to Gotham and is seeking Batman's approval to operate there."

"Dude, I seem to remember you telling us that asking for that was like demanding the sun and moon." Beastboy notes.

"She never asked him, she just did what she felt was the right approach before meeting with him. But after a talk, Batman handed her a mission to test if he could trust her and feel safe around her. You were never aware of it, but the night you all saved me from the Slade illusion, Raven found out who I am, and who Batman is under the cowl." There is a notable silence from the pair before they yell simultaneously.

"WHAT?!"

"Dude you mean she's known all this time!? She never said anything!" Beastboy sounds like he has been cheated out of something.

"So old Bats feels threatened by Rae knowing?" Cyborg asks in a serious tone.

"In a way, yes, since she found out by accident. Look I can't go into any details about her mission, but I don't like it. But it is a deal between her and Batman, she wants to do this. And until she is done, we can't see her." I see Cyborg's eyes widen a bit, I realize he's figured it out.

"He's dropped her behind enemy lines, hasn't he?" I sigh before nodding.

"You mean she is going to pretend being friends with your old psycho gallery?" Beastboy asks; I can practically see the steam rising off Victors head.

"Rob, you better let your boss know, if Rae is injured permanently or otherwise because of this, then I will personally use him to redecorate that cave of his!" As much as I don't believe that actually happening, I can see it is the time to just let the message pass on.

"I will Cy." Cyborg sighs, part of his angry expression seems to fall away.

"Good, sorry to blow up in your face for this Rob, but I just want her to be safe you know." I nod, he was still her big brother, related or not. "I need to vent some steam, thanks for letting us know Rob, see you around." He kills his feed after that, I feel sorry for the thing that happens to be the target.

"So, does this mean we get to meet Batman at some point?" Garfield's optimistic question breaks the remaining tension I have. I just smile at him.

"I guess you will Gar."


	6. Shadow of the Mask

Early evening in the park cave.

"Well, time to go see what this city is like from the other side." Raven says to herself. After spending most of the night before and the following day memorizing as many of the villains as possible, she felt ready to go meet one of them now. A mob boss named Roman Sionis, better known in the underworld as the ruthless Black Mask, he is probably the most mentally stable of the lot that would hire the Shadow. She figured the bosses in the Falcone and Thorne families would be hesitant to hire something that was not entirely human.

Roman was different, his family had once been wealthy but Roman had ruined the company they owned and himself in the process. This had lead him into crime and a unfortunate accident that horribly burnt his face, which he now hides behind a black skull shaped mask of wood. Raven had read that his gang, called the False Facers, controlled a large part of the docks and the warehouse district on the west side of Gotham. Most of Gotham City is built on a large island, landlocked to the north. With the sea to the east and the Gotham River on the west, so Mask's areas of control are vast. While Black Mask was the most stable of them, he wasn't entirely sane either with a notable sadistic streak along with the paranoia that seems to infect everyone in this city. But he was powerful enough to not bother hiding his usual location, an office building in his turf.

Before leaving the cave Raven's features slowly change into the Shadow's whirlwind shape that Batman had met her in. Her disguise complete, she melts into the floor, reappearing over the lake for a short moment to get her bearings before disappearing again.

_Western Docks_

Looking out from the shadows on the wall, she spies on the two guards at the door. This is one of the few office buildings in the area, and therefore much taller than the surrounding buildings, with its 15 stories. Looking at the two, she sees why they are called False Facers; they are both wearing elaborate looking masks.

One mask is green with a pig nose and short tusks protruding from the lower jaw, she can't see the top half of his mask as he is wearing an old fashioned hat with a wide shade. The other one is deep shade of red or brown and doesn't have any remarkable features; Raven thinks it is styled a bit like some of the masks she saw in Japan, he is also wearing a similar hat as his buddy, but where the other is brown, his is black. Raven also takes note of the size of the men, they are obvious muscle men, paid to intimidate and break things, not to think too much. Of course the Kalashnikov rifle and the twin pistols they carry openly would deter anyone not looking for trouble.

Raven slips into the wall having decided on how to best introduce herself. The two men stare as the swirling shadow emerges out of the alley in front of them; they both reach for their weapons realizing it is a potential threat. The Shadow stops its advance, but doesn't look overly worried staring down the three barrels. Where 'Pig-nose' carries the rife and 'Redskin' with his pair of pistols.

"Relax guys, I am not here to fight, I am here to talk to your boss." Neither of the thugs flinch or move at her request.

"Yeah, and we are just going to show you to him?" Pig-nose replies.

"Well I can just search the building for him, but I doubt he would listen after that." The Shadow states calmly. The two thugs exchange looks before Redskin holsters his right pistol and retrieves a cell phone instead.

"Joe? There a…thing down there that wants to talk to the boss. No, I don't think it will wait. Yes, I know he doesn't want to be disturbed now…Look it's not ordinary this thing. How the hell should I know what it is?! You either come down here and approve of it or you better…" Redskin trails off; apparently something happened at the other end. "Sorry Boss, I didn't want to disturb you, but there's something down there that wants to talk to you…Looks like a black whirlwind to me, sir…You're the Boss." Redskin lowers his gun as well as pocketing the phone. "Ok, looks like you got your wish; follow me. Bob, stay here."

The Shadow follows the large man inside the building, on the inside it looks more like an extravagant hotel than an office building. The lobby has a red carpet with black lines crossing it and themselves. The furniture is old fashioned, made of dark polished wood with light green cloth covering the stuffing. The wood is copied in the short legged tables and the counter at the far wall. Shadow notes that there are a few armed men in the lounge, casually sipping drinks or smoking. That is until they notice her; a few of them slowly reach for their weapons while lowering their masks, covering their faces.

"Boss' orders." Redskin shrugs while walking past them, the group slows down their movements but remain on edge while Shadow and Redskin make their way down to the left of the counter and into an elevator with a green carpet and bronze plated walls, Redskin presses the button that should bring them to a floor halfway up the building. On the way up Shadow notes the man is sweating nervously, but if it was because of his boss or her she can't tell. She moves a little closer to him, he begins to sweat even more.

Fortunately for him, the elevator doors open again letting the pair into what looks like a waiting room. It is in the same style as the lobby, but here there are only two men, both with semi automatics and masks, and a woman typing away on a typewriter. She looks at the pair once before motioning Shadow to one of the stuffed chairs to the left, while waiving Redskin away; he reenters the elevator after a short nod at the others. Shadow just hovers near the chairs. Settling for staring at her present company, the two guards are like those at the door, muscle and they quickly pretend to be looking at something else as soon as Shadows eyes fall on them. The woman doesn't look up from her work, but she does seem to shrink when stared at either. Shadow guesses the woman was either as bad as the men around here, desperate for work or being blackmailed to work here and used to ignoring any visitors.

After waiting almost 10 minutes a large dark skinned man, wearing an almost featureless golden mask and a grey suit you'd normally see in an office, emerges out of the large double doors leading into the other room.

"Black Mask will see you, after you hand over any weapons." Shadow just moves to stand in front of him, waiting for him to frisk her. The man reaches out to begin, but stops when he notices that his hands pass through the being in front of him. The man stares at shadow for a second before stepping aside, apparently content or just giving up. Shadow floats past him and though the doors, the man follows her closing the doors behind him before moving to stand silent at the side.

The room is large, dominated by a long table that takes up most of the central space, the chairs around it suggests the owner is capable of entertaining around 20 people at it, both chairs and table are again of the same dark wood all of the other furniture seems to be made off. The walls are from the floor to half ways up covered by light brown wooden panels, the rest of the walls are covered by red. There are eight thugs in the room, including the bruiser that followed her in, all wearing masks and suits. At the windows at one end of the room is a large desk in the same style as the rest, a few papers and a pen is placed haphazardly on it, indicating someone was working at it recently.

That someone is sitting at the head of the dining table with his back to the desk, wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a harness for the two guns holstered at the side of his chest. She realizes that she's interrupted Black Masks dinner as she spots the last of the steak, mashed potatoes and peas on his plate, and the blue napkin sticking out of his shirt. The black wooden mask that covers his head is currently only revealing his eyes, she reads his emotions to know that he is somewhere between annoyed, curious and a little surprised as he stares at her.

"I believe you wished to talk to me?" His voice is stern and not one used to having to ask twice. He would look more threatening if he wasn't still holding his fork and knife. She notes the mask he is wearing also has a jaw that moves as if it was his own, meaning he could eat with it on.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you would be interested in hiring my services." Black Mask puts down his utensils before leaning back in his chair, leaning his fingers against each other, his eyes show more curiosity now as does the rest of him.

"Interesting, but why should I hire someone who has been jumping my boys and those of my competitors for the last few weeks?"

"Call it a 'product' demonstration, Crane and the Joker was just added bonus when I happened on them."

"Hmm, so why offer your services to me?"

"I don't work for loons who decide everything by tossing a coin, and the families are too tight to let outsiders in without a recommendation. And according to the grapevine, you sound like man who would be able to appreciate the things I can do."

"That they are, I take it you're not from around here?" He asks, ignoring what was her attempt at flattery.

"No, but I like the town."

"A lot of people do, but it would be a lot better without its flying rats. Which leads me to the next question, how can I be sure you're not someone sent by the Bat?" Mask replies without missing a beat.

"You can't, but you couldn't be sure if Batman is not in this very room right now posing as one of your own bodyguards." Black Mask is paranoid enough to stare at each of his men in turn, hoping to spot a fatal weakness that would reveal the Dark Knight. "But rest assured, I am no friend of his." Mask settles back in his seat, clearly annoyed.

"So what benefits would I get from hiring you that I can't already get from my current employees?"

"For one thing I am good at getting into places where no one else can go, I can get the answers I want from anyone. Oh and I can be a very unpleasant encounter…as Crane will testify, once he wakes up." She replies, making sure to make the last part sound as low and menacing as possible.

"I suspect you interrogated the three of my boys you left in the hospital to my whereabouts?" He didn't need to know Batman had around a dozen of his hideouts on paper.

"One of them was just for kicks."

"Funny. I do believe I can offer you a spot in my organization. You will have to start at the bottom of course, but I am sure you realize trust is a highly valued commodity in this city. So what fares does an individual such as you charge?" Shadow quickly picks up the surface thoughts of the bodyguards, probably his best paid men as the talk of pay enters their minds.

"I am at your command, for 25 grand a month, I only take cash and I assure you I am worth every penny." She can see the man thinking about it, 25 was a lot for a new face and his best paid got 75. She is about to mention she could lower her standards of employers before she notices the man wizening up.

"Deal, welcome to my organization, I would demand you pick a mask, but seeing as you don't have a face that would be redundant." Shadow rolls her eyes inwardly at her new employer. "Go look for Carlos in the lobby, he will show you the ropes. And to you I am either; Black Mask, Mask or Boss, got it?"

"Got it Boss." The title makes her briefly consider adding him to the other test samples, but thinks better of it and his time would probably come soon enough.

Exiting the room, Shadow moves towards the elevator before noticing another waiting to see her new employer. It takes every bit of self restraint she has not to show anything other than curiosity when she recognizes him. Leaning his head back with his one eye closed and his feet on the table in front of him, Slade seems to have been waiting long enough for him to fall asleep. She decides to risk it by playing into the role.

"Job's already taken Bub, might as well try somewhere else." Slade snaps awake with his one blue eye staring at her.

"Mister Wilson is expected, please refrain from bothering him." The secretary says from behind the desk.

"My apologies then." Slade only nods at her, never blinking while she calmly hovers into the elevator. His only comment to the whole thing:

"Interesting." He mentally notes down to have a closer look at the stranger that just passed him.

Shadow exits the elevator in the lobby looking at the group of 5 masked men apparently getting ready for something as they are checking weapons.

"Which one of you is Carlos?" The group stops what they are doing, before the largest of them, a man wearing a wooden mask that makes him look like a Chinese dragon with its yellow skin and red cheeks and eyes answers.

"That would be me."

"Mask says you are to show me the ropes." She notes two of the others swear under their breath.

"Sure, we are about to go make sure a few loaners pay up, you can tag along."

"Fine." Shadow is content with falling into silence watching the others finish, her silence continues as the group moves out the front door, passing Redskin and Pig-nose on the way. The group walks over to an old yellow van in a parking lot near the building. Carlos gets into the driver's seat, a smaller man wearing a Phantom of the Opera styled mask gets in next to him, his mask is white on the top half and the lower is black. The three others get in the back of the van

"Get in the back." Carlos orders her.

"I can't fit into it. I will move out of them when you get out." Without waiting for a reply, she sinks into the shadow of the van, much to the displeasure of Carlos who grumbles as he starts the van.

The van stops in a crumbling neighborhood near the docks, the street here seems to have been forgotten by the rest of the city. It is cracked and badly in need of repairs, the rundown look is complimented by the trash that litters the street. The houses are at least 30 years old brickwork in three stories, many of the apartments look uninhabited, judging from the cracked or missing windows. The group exits the van and forms up around Carlos while Shadow rises out of the ground behind 'Phantom', making him jump.

"Don't do that!" He snaps at her.

"Do what?" She makes sure she makes it clear that she doesn't care about his feelings. Before he can reply Carlos cuts in.

"Knock it off you two, first stop is Pedro." Carlos takes point, walking to a certain door.

Shadow hears yelling from inside before she moves inside as the last of the group. Carlos is halfway up the stairs yelling in Hispanic at an old woman who is yelling at him as well in the same tongue from the ground floor. The old crone ceases her argument as she spots the whirling shadow; she throws the sign of the cross before retreating into her apartment. Carlos just shrugs before disappearing up the stairs, the rest follow him up. Shadow noticed their ease at this as one man moves to stand right in front of the door Carlos and Phantom move to the far side of it while the remaining two cover the closest side. Carlos receives a nod from the man in front of the door before he starts counting down using his fingers. At zero the man kicks the door in, all of them start yelling at the top of their lungs as they pile through the door. Screams and yelps begin emerging from within as Shadow silently moves to stand in the ruined doorway; this was going to take more out of her than she thought. She watches as Carlos and Phantom shove a man past a doorway, the other three seems to be occupied covering a female and a child, judging from the wails.

"Pedro, you're two weeks behind. You know the Mask doesn't like it when you try to hide stuff from him."

"I keep telling you people I don't have any money for you." Pedro snaps back, receiving a slap for it.

"And I know your lying, we supply you with the goods and you cheat us? I am trying to be polite Pedro, now pay up." Carlos underlines his speaking by cracking his knuckles. After several seconds of silence, Carlos sighs.

"Hey you." Carlos is pointing at her. "You wanna try getting this sucker to pay up before we have to?"

Shadow move soundlessly through the first room into the bed room, receiving audible gasps from Pedro, a wasted looking South American, probably as much a junky as a pusher, on the bed is a woman from the same part of the world; she looks as wasted as he does. Cradling in her arms, she is holding an infant that's too busy wailing to notice anything. Before anyone can react Shadow grabs the infant out of the woman's hands, letting the toddler float gently around in the air she turns to Pedro, who is now forcibly being held down by Phantom.

"Are you going to pay up, or am I going to have to do something nasty to this kid?" She ignores the gasp and renewed wailing and pleading from the child's mother, Pedro looks like a deer caught in the headlight. "Well, I do prefer them cooked, but for you I'll eat it raw and in bits." She threatens as she lets a wicked mouth appear, one filled with razor sharp teeth.

"U…under the couch." Pedro stammers pointing into the first room.

"Wise man." Shadow says before sending the infant back to its mother.

Late that night, in the cave under the park.

Raven emerges out of the shadows and throws herself onto the bed, burying her face in the pillow.

"ARRRRGH!" She yells into the pillow, it had been a most unpleasant night for her, pretending to be a coldhearted bastard was not in any way something she wanted to be doing, especially as her empathy lets her know exactly what the others feel, the fear, pain and rage. After a few moments of grumbling and swearing into the pillow she notices an annoying beeping sound coming from the computer, an incoming call. Sighing she gets off the bed and walks over to the computer, slumping down in front of the screen and receives the call from Batman.

"You look beat." Batman notes.

"It has been a rough night." Batman gets the hint that she had been out searching.

"Anything to report?"

"Well, I've joined the False Facers and spend most of the night scaring and threatening people that owed them money when I didn't have to be rougher." Batman just nods. "And I had a very uncomfortable encounter after I was hired."

"Go on."

"Are you alone? Because this is something I know a certain person in your house shouldn't hear." She can see Batman putting on a pair of earphones and pushing a few buttons.

"Go ahead, this end is secure."

"When I exited Roman's office, Slade was sitting in his waiting room." Batman's eyes widen considerably. "Apparently he had an appointment with Mask."

"Did he recognize you?"

"If he did, he didn't indicate it." Batman sighs before rubbing his masked temples.

"This complicates things considerably; infiltrating a gang is one thing. But having Deathstroke showing up in Gotham is a turn for the worse."

"Anything you want me to try and do from this end?" Raven tries to sound confident, falling somewhat short of the mark.

"From what I know of him, he seems almost obsessed with getting someone to follow him?" Raven was not liking where her thought were leading her at the mention of this.

"Yes, but last I checked, Red X was still with him. Why?"

"If Red X was injured too badly by you the last time you met, could Slade have rejected him?"

"It is possible, but that would be a first, Richard and Terra both turned on him."

"I think you should prepare for Slade to make you the offer at some point in the future then, if that is why he is here that is. If he does, try and get him somewhere where you are alone, contact us by that point and we can take him down. But if you can manage it without Roman knowing it, you could try and trail him."

"If I am left alone with him, I will most likely rip him a new one." She replies, admitting to herself that Slade was one of the very few people she'd do considerable bodily harm to if she could get the chance.

"Just leave something left to go to jail." Batman says with a slight smile. "Anything else you want to add?"

"Only that I absolutely hate having to do this." Raven says flatly.

"Good, it means you haven't gotten drunk on the power they feed on."

"You know it's hard to be cold when you feel everything the receivers do?" Batman notices the depressed tone in her voice.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"The first visit we made was some pusher that refused to pay up, they asked if I wanted to try and crack him before they did. I grabbed his infant kid out of his mother's arms and threatened to eat it if he didn't pay."

"You are afraid that you will be swayed to your father's side by something like this?"

"Yes." Raven whispers. "I worry that a part of me will be feeding off this through my empathy."

"Don't worry Raven, you are stronger than that. I know this is will be taking a toll on you and that this is hard normally. The times I've gone undercover I usually have to follow someone around for a few days before they force me to do something like that."

"It seems I get thrown into the deep end a lot these days."

"I know, but Gotham is a hellhole compared to Metropolis and Jump. And this is a good way to see it with your own eyes, it is a hard lesson but it's necessary." Batman decides to ask one question. "Is there a reason you wanted to keep Slade's presence from Dick?"

"If he finds out, he will stop at nothing to capture him, including ruining my mission. I know you two are alike in many ways, and I guess you have had some cases that you pursued for weeks if not months on end to get it solved. Richard will be like that, if Slade is not captured in time, he will begin to push everyone away he considers an obstacle between him and his quarry."

"I see, if you can manage it, try and find out as much about Slade as you can, anything might be valuable, like the first time he showed up, rumored hiding places that sort of thing."

"I will see what I can find." Batman nods his approval. Raven was not looking forwards to looking closer at her second most hated person, Trigon having a patent on her first place, Malchior taking a close 3rd.

"You've done good tonight Raven, get some rest." Batman says before killing the feed, leaving Raven alone in the bunker. She sighs heavily before deciding a good amount of meditation is needed before she even considers sleep. A certain red cloaked emotion is currently in the mood for redecoration, using another, pink cloaked, emotion to do it.

The following morning, Metropolis, Victor Stones apartment.

Victor grumbles as he rummages through his, all too small, kitchen, between his studies on the MetTI (Metropolis Technological Institute) and his maintenance, he can only hold a job that affords him a small three room apartment. It is mornings like these he misses the kitchen in Titans Tower, and the fun he would have turning down Garfield's tofu dishes. Of course the call from Nightwing had made him grumpy the most of yesterday, the news had been a bittersweet mix. Raven had been found, that was good and for a second a weight had fallen off his shoulders, but that Batman had sent her into the scummiest part of his town, alone, infuriates Victor off to no end.

He hadn't talked to Raven for so long and again he berates himself for not calling. Victor's mood is not improved as he notices his breakfast getting burnt, his attention somewhere else entirely. Sighing he drops the disaster into the trashcan, Raven was taking up too much of his mind. And Victor realizes there is only one way to help that, he pops up his inbuilt communicator, dialing a number of a person he knows is probably in the same frame of mind as him. The somewhat sour green face greets him.

"Yo Gar, how's it hanging?" The face brightens up somewhat.

"Dude I'm totally bummed about this thing with Rae."

"Me too green bean, I even burnt my bacon this morning." Cyborg replies.

"Time for tofu dude, you can eat it when it's cold."

"When hell freezes over Gar." Victor says with a smile, they where again moving back into the old argument. "But seriously I was wondering if you were up for a little something the weekend at the end of the month?"

"I'd have to ask Mento about it, what are you thinking about Sam?"

"I don't know Max, how about a short visit to a certain dark city to look for our dark bird?" Cyborg beams proudly.

"Dude, you wanna go to Gotham, without telling Nightwing? Or Batman for that matter?!"

"Yup, they would both tell us to butt out if we did anyways, so we are just taking a weekend field trip there, I'll make a holo-ring for you as well. Whatdaya say?"

"Dude, it, is, totally, on!"

Much of the following three weeks prove uneventful for any of the heroes, Raven only had to loiter around Black Mask's goons trying to find out more about Slade while having to squeeze money out of a few more people, threaten some into taking bribes and having to teach two people a lesson about getting on Mask's bad side, she had been extremely thankful she got to do it herself and that Mask wanted them alive.

To herself she is getting alarmingly good at it, knowing the other goons she was surrounded with were actually gradually leaning more and more on her to get the job done. And she was gradually getting more accepted by them, even getting asked if she drank or wanted a line of coke. Thankfully she could get past it with saying that she went completely ballistic the only time she drank and that she was not even going to touch drugs for that same reason. Her task about finding Slade however was proved almost fruitless, she only learned that he had shown up in Gotham a few weeks ago, but he kept a very low profile, but the word was that Deathstroke was looking for something.

Batman had supplied her with the file he had and it had given her a deeper understanding of Slade, his past certainly explained why he wanted an apprentice so badly, the guy was old. And at the same time, she wonders if Richard even knew the Titans were dealing with the most formidable mercenary on the market, Batman's file was scary reading and in a way, she was happy Deathstroke never wanted them dead since he could certainly achieved that. The Bat-clan however keeps patrolling the streets of Gotham as normal; Batman being the sole member of the group to know Slade was in the city.

Raven's loitering comes to a halt Thursday night.

Carlos walks around the corner, spotting Shadow aimlessly floating in the middle of the lobby, apparently bored.

"Boss has a shipment coming in tonight; he wants you to keep an eye on it while it gets shifted. Be at pier 22 at 11." Carlos instructs, Shadow just looks at him with a bored expression.

"I'll be there." Carlos nods at the reply before he walks off. She doesn't socialize much with the regular goons, for one thing she doesn't want to and secondly they are still avoiding her most of the time, which suits her just fine since it proves the aura of unease she is projecting is working as intended. But this thing about a shipment was something Batman would want to know about, during her time here she had learned bringing things in by ship was considered a risky business and most of the good come by truck or van, a ship meant it was either big or important.

"_Richard?"_ Raven reaches out with the mental bond she has with her old leader, thought it had been long dormant now, maybe for too long she notes as she has to revitalize the connection.

"_Rae?" _

"_It's me, Mask has a shipment of something coming in tonight around 11 at pier 22."_

"_Knowing him, that could be anything from drugs to guns to expensive furniture. He's sending you down there?"_

"_He wants me to keep it safe."_

"_I see, I will notify Batman about it. I'll let you know if he wants you to take action and take care Rae." _Raven finds it somewhat funny, that Richard treats the bond as a telephone he can just hang up as she feels his mind being turned away from her. The bond is odd like that, when she is linked it is a bit like the two are staring at each other and when one turns away it's like you can feel the lack of attention.

Shadow looks at the clock over the counter, 21:30. She opts for some meditating while she waits.

Pier 22, 2300 hours.

Shadow emerges out of the darkness between the crates, startling the seven men who are busy moving crates from a pile on the ground into the two waiting trucks. The men stare at her, apparently unsure what to make of the new arrival, one even slowly inching towards his concealed gun. Shadow notes these aren't wearing the elaborate masks she's grown used to, these just settle with pieces of cloth covering the lower part of their faces, apparently these were lower ranking people or just hired for the job.

"Keep loading, Boss wants this done fast." She says with a note of authority and the men slowly begin working again, the mention of the Boss seems to be enough to motivate them. Shadow mentally scans the crates and their contents, finding the shapes of guns and lots of them. There are pistols, semi-automatics, a single large caliber gun and a few rocket launchers, and enough ammunition to start a small war. _"I can't let this stuff get into Masks hands. But how do I stop it?"_ While thinking about the puzzle, she pretends to be scanning the surrounding area for threats. It is hard to see anything; their current position is mostly hidden from the rest of the city. Large piles of crates block the view where the storehouses doesn't, Shadow of course has senses others don't so having someone appear suddenly in front of you is quite surprising.

"It seems I was right in continuing the search for you." Zatanna steps out of the cloud of pink and purple smoke, Shadow notes that her heeled shoes make's her as tall as Batman when you include the black top hat as well. Shadow would have made a jab at her choice of clothing, but nothing comes to mind. The fishnet socks that cover her otherwise exposed legs, the hot pants and the suit sort of speaks for itself she thinks. Raven always wondered how she expected to be taken seriously in that get up. But even in that get up, her appearance is enough to make the men freeze in alarm.

"Did the big old Bat grow bored with me already?" Shadow circles around Zatanna till she can see the men over Zatanna's shoulder. "Get as much as you can and run!" Shadow orders, the men throw whatever they are carrying into the trucks before jumping in themselves.

"seriT erutcnup!" The men run for cover as the popping sounds of the bursting truck tires fill the air. "Give up Shadow, I won't ask twice." Zatanna says as she gathers power for a spell.

"RUN!" Shadow yells before quickly sinking into the darkness of the crates, the men scatter to the four winds. Zatanna starts looking into the shadows for the one she came for, finding nothing she tries something else.

"wodahS raeppa!" And as commanded Shadow appears out of the ground before her a furious expression in her eyes. She was going to have to resort to option two on this one. As soon as she has emerged out of the ground completely, she swats Zatanna away with an arm of solid black, catching the magician across the chest sending her flying.

Shadow waits for the magician to get back on her feet, which she does, a hat shorter. None of them say anything, settling for a staring contest waiting for the other to move. Zatanna draws first, after an eternity seems to pass; sending a brightly colored bolt of magic straight toward her opponent, who takes it full in the midsection, slamming her against the wall behind her.

"Don't dish out what you can't take." Zatanna says with an annoyed tone, looking at the mess on the wall. Shadow looks like a tomato that has been hurled into it, spreading wet black chunks all over the wall. At first she hangs motionless on the wall as she blacked out by the attack, she hadn't been expecting something that powerful as an opening move, making Zatanna wonder if she overdid it, but slowly the chunks begin to come together piece by piece. Soon enough the Shadow is mostly reassembled, she is not pleased, but a little thankful she wasn't out so long that her disguise began to slip.

"That hurt!" Shadow growls with the realization that the blast could have killed her, if she hadn't been maintain a low profile shield around her, mostly for the sake of bullets since she was only incorporeal when she wanted to be. Part of her mind is asking herself if Zatanna was attacking her for real or if Batman was trying to make her look credible in Black Masks eyes.

"I'm sure your victims will be pleased, demon." Raven raises an eyebrow behind the disguise, wondering how much Zatanna knows. "Batman must be growing soft to let something like you walk around, but I will make sure you are sent back to whatever hell that spawned you!" Zatanna raises her hands into the air gathering more mystical energy to vanquish her foe, to Shadow it just happens in slow motion.

Raven suddenly has a flashback of the day she asked for help from the Justice League, Zatanna mirrors those words she said all those years ago, something inside Raven clicks. Because of this buffoon, she was forced to rely on a bunch of extraordinary kids to help her stand against her father, one of the most powerful demons ever known!

Shadow seems to explode, black tendrils races out from her form snaking round the place with the general direction of the magician in fishnets. Zatanna's offensive attack is swiftly converted into a defensive one as she is forced to shield herself from the tentacles, that impact on it like water hitting glass. While Zatanna is busy deflecting the tentacles, Shadow levitates several crates from one of the stacks behind her opponent, before they are sent hurling towards her from different directions. Zatanna spots them in time and deflects the first with a shield, dodges out of the way of the second, the last one comes a little later than the first two and as Zatanna is distracted by a tentacle that wraps itself around her ankle, the crate collides with her midsection sending her flying into a small pile of crates, demolishing them as she lands. Shadow notes that Zatanna is not getting up from under it, so she floats over, ready to lash out in case of it being a trap.

She find Zatanna still conscious, but too messed up to continue. Her uneven breathing tells of several broken ribs, and a piece of wood is lodged into her right bicep her blood slowly forming a puddle under her. Zatanna's right hand slowly moving to her arm, Shadow guesses she wants to remove the piece of wood from her arm. Instead she is surprised as she instead dips a gloved finger into the puddle of blood before writing on the ground. First an L then an A then an E, Shadow quickly moves over when she realizes what Zatanna is doing; blood magic. Had she finished writing she would have been good as new. Zatanna gives a gurgled sigh when she is interrupted and the letters erased, she looks up into the glowing eyes of Shadow who is now standing next to her.

"We are even now." Is the last thing Zatanna hears before Shadows eyes pulse once and darkness engulfs her, sending her off into unconsciousness.

Raven looks down on the unconscious form of Zatanna, trying to decide what to do with her; she couldn't hang her from a light post like Batman usually did according to rumors and she couldn't leave her on the ground unguarded and healing her is out of the question because of her current position, she knows what she must do. The pair disappears in the dark, leaving only the wrecked area behind after she sends her powers into the crates and renders the guns and ammunition useless if not dangerous to use. Mask would think it was the fight that did it, and she could justify leaving Zatanna alive, as a hired muscle she could demand extra pay for something like that and she was planning on saying Zatanna had just managed to escape her.


	7. A Bat in the Past

The following morning Wayne Manor; the kitchen.

Dick almost chokes on his coffee when he reads an article before he reads it again:

**Famous Stage Magician Found Brutalized**

_Gotham born stage celebrity and magician Zatanna Zatara, was found wounded late last night at the entrance of the Gotham Memorial Hospital. Our sources inform us that she is currently stable but unconscious. So far the police have no comments on the incident._

Richard almost leaps out of his chair with the paper and storms off to find Bruce, leaving a baffled Alfred and Tim in the kitchen. Bruce is currently going through his daily exercise routine in the gym, he stops when Dick bursts through the doors waving the paper.

"What?" Bruce asks in an annoyed tone because he's been interrupted and annoyed because Raven failed to report in late last night, but he knows that could be for a number of reasons.

"Someone's jumped Zee." Dick replies before tossing the paper to Bruce, who scans the page before muttering under his breath.

"I told her to leave her alone." Bruce tosses the paper back to Dick before walking quickly out of the room; Dick follows him down to the cave, picking up Tim on the way down. Bruce walks straight over to the computer with a stern look on his face as he hits a sequence of keys, after a few moments of waiting, Ravens image appears on the screen an annoyed look on her face and clutching an ice bag to her head.

"What?" Her voice indicates she is not in the mood for anything funny, actually Richard remembers retreating at that tone a few times in the past.

"Report." Bruce commands.

"Last night Mask told me to guard a shipment of his, while I was doing that, Zatanna showed up, we got into a real fight and I had to spend the rest of the night in the company of an angry Roman, who lost his shipment. Why did you send that idiot anyways?" Dick sends her a strange look, he can't actually remember any people that disliked Zatanna, save the people she threw in jail and he actually had once though the two should practice together at one time, but the thought never got past the idea stage.

"I didn't, I told her to stop looking. If she was down there, it was on her own accord." Bruce replies.

"So you didn't send her or anyone else down there?" Raven continues.

"No, Dick told me about the shipment, I figured you could handle it." He replies.

"You should have probably been there; there was enough small arms and ammunition to start a small scale war in those crates. And before you ask, I disabled all of the guns before taking Zatanna to the hospital. Mask complained most of the night that he had to discard all of the ammunition as well, since the guns was broke." Bruce sighs while rubbing his eyes.

"Did you have to put Zatanna in the hospital?" Dick notes with worry that Raven's right eyebrows is twitching, she is on the verge of exploding he knows. She drops the ice bag and stands up, revealing a large hole in her leotard, showing off her flat midsection and an ugly blue-red wound covering most of it.

"She almost killed me!" Dick actually takes a step away from the screen at the protest, Tim jumps behind him. Bruce only opens his eyes a fraction, something only those closest to him knows reveals his concern. Dick's fear is quickly overridden by concern as Raven clutches her stomach before sitting down again with a pained expression on her face.

"Umm, Rea, are you ok?" Raven just glares at him, with a look that she only used on Beastboy when he did something stupid.

"I'll be fine, I just need some time to heal. Which I might add is being held up right now." Bruce sighs at her groan.

"Go rest Raven, take it easy on the next one?"

"That one was personal." Raven states as she kills the feed. Bruce shakes his head after the screen goes dark.

"Think it's safe to say she isn't intimidated by you." Tim quips from behind Dick, whose mind is busy with a puzzle.

"What did she mean that it was personal?"

"She never told you? Did she?" Bruce counters.

"Told us what?" Bruce turns around in the chair to look at them before beginning;

"Before you met her in Jump City, Raven sought help from the League to combat her father. There was only me, Zatanna, Hawkman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman on the station to handle her request. Zatanna warned us that she sensed a great evil coming from Raven and quickly urged us to subdue her before she could do anything; I was the only one who didn't move while the others leapt at her. Raven teleported away before the others could catch her. She found me later on in Gotham; I figured she followed me from the Bat-signal. We spoke and I suggested that she should go find you in Jump City; where you met her." Dick just stares at him, his face in disbelief.

"She never said anything about meeting you or the League."

"I told her not to mention that I had sent her after you, considering how we felt towards each other at the time. You would have thought she was a spy or a kind of nanny I sent after you. I suspect she didn't want to talk about the League around the rest of you, because it would have you asking why she was rejected by them and in turn she might have feared you would turn her away as well if you found out the truth."

"So why didn't you help her?"

"I did; I sent her to you." He pauses for a second before elaborating. "Raven knew her father would come on her birthday but, she didn't know which one. I couldn't keep her here without having the League coming through the front door looking for her. By sending her to you, I gambled you would help her till that day came, and that you would call me when it happened. I kept the League away from Jump with my request to let you have it as you wanted and that I didn't see the treat Zatanna did. I assumed you'd know when, or if, you were out of your league. I enquired Jason regarding Trigon after sending her to Jump because I didn't know what to expect, after that I expected you'd call when it was time. That Trigon turned the world to stone, was something no one knew, Raven figured it would be through invasion with the armies she knew he had, so did I and Etrigan. But asides from helping her, I hoped she might have a contact in this world the same age as her." He replies before looking away. "Also, at that time, I wasn't ready to have another teenager around the house."

"You gambled a lot that I would just accept her, at the moment forming a partnership with anyone was far down the list of priorities for me. What were you going to do if she returned to you, if I had rejected her?" Richard asks.

"I know, but the strange meeting of you Titans pushed you in the direction anyways. But if she had returned, I would have tested her and if she was up for it, she could have ended up been the second Robin." Bruce says matter-of-factly, Dick and Tim both just stare at him in suprise. Dick is again remembering the day he returned to the tower with all of the others wearing his spare costumes; strangely Raven was the only one who seemed to fit it, Cyborg was too big, Beastboy too small and Starfire was too tall. "If she wasn't, then I would have seen if it was possible for her to stay with Fate, but I considered that a long shot because he has certain rules he follows because of the mantle; one of them being about exposing kids, even gifted, to his job."

"So if you were willing to do that back then, why don't you trust her now?" Tim asks getting Richard to wonder the same, Bruce hadn't exactly welcomed her with open arms, but the past history does explain most of his odd behavior towards her.

"I didn't know her back then, and I didn't know that she was battling daily to keep her powers and her other side in check. And I am just generally uncomfortable around people that can look into my head, something I learned she is capable of as well later on, but all of that was after sending her to Dick. But if she had proven capable of handling your mantle, Dick, I could have molded her into someone like you, someone I would trust like I do you. But since she was pretty much raised by you and your friends, she became her own person." Bruce explains. "And with so much time having passed since anyone has really seen her…much could have changed, much has atleast changed from when I first met her."

Richard nods at this in agreement. "So, alternate past's aside, I hope you are going to talk to Zee when she comes around. Or the rest of the League will be all over Gotham in a matter of hours after she gets a phone." He says while crossing his arms.

"I will, and I will make sure that she understands it this time." Bruce states with a dangerous look on his face.

Meanwhile, deep in the Gotham sewers.

"I may only be a messenger this day, but you better have a good reason for having this meeting here." An orange skinned humanoid women growls, clearly disproving of the smell in the small room with a single light bulb.

"That reason is called Batman." A second deep steady voice says calmly from the darkness.

"I do not see why we should fear a mere human." The alien's voice hides nothing of the contempt she feels, as was natural to her kind.

"No matter what you may think of him, I have a message for your… Empress. I have confirmed that the one she seeks is here, but he usually never far away from the Batman or the other one. If either of them are like the Batman your warriors will be in for a fight, one they are unlikely to win if you gave me the correct numbers of your hunters."

"Why should a whole platoon of our warriors fear three humans? But I assume you have a proposal to remedy the situation; get on with it." The alien snaps as she folds her arms over her chest.

"Because those humans can call for help that will come in shape of a dozen individuals and that includes two kryptonians and one Green Lantern. If your ruler should grant it, I will try and recruit someone who, if rumors are true, should be able to push the board in our favor. Oh, and kindly remind your Empress that timing is everything here."

"I will deliver your message." The alien says before she turns and walks towards the exit she came through, coming into the light, revealing it to be a tall, redheaded female. As she crosses the room a shadow darts from behind her, grabs her and presses a knife to her throat.

"You are fortunate that corpses make such poor messengers. And your quest will fail if you continue to underestimate us humans." Slade hisses before removing the knife and giving the woman a hard shove in the back sending her stumbling towards the exit into the main sewer line. The woman turns around sharply with her eyes and hands glowing red, but finding nothing behind her, only the smell and sounds of the sewer is with her.

Gotham Memorial Hospital later that morning.

"Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me where Zatanna Zatara's room is?" A smiling Bruce Wayne asks the nurse behind the counter, who looks up at the voice in surprise. "She's a friend of mine."

"Oh a…Room 32 on the second floor, Mr. Wayne."

"Thank you." The Bruce smiles at the nurse before he walks over the elevators, going up one floor and heads down the hallway, smiling occasionally to those who recognize him before he finds the room.

Entering the ward, Bruce notes that Zatanna has the good fortune of having a room all to herself, partially because of her celebrity status and partially because of the security threat she was as a super heroine. The woman in question is sleeping in her bed dressed in a hospital grown. From where he is standing, in the doorway, he can see the bandages covering her right arm. Closing the door silently behind him, he pulls over a chair and sits down next to her injured side. Zatanna stirs slightly before waking up slowly, he is unsure if it is natural or because of a spell she managed to cast before falling asleep.

"Bruce..?" She asks, with her eyes trying to focus on the blur besides her.

"It's me Zee. How are you feeling?"

"I like I've been hit like a truck…wearing a crate." Bruce notes that she is speaking with a little difficulty, guessing it was the compressed ribs he read she had, so he waits a little before continuing.

"You know I did tell you to stop pursuing the Shadow for a reason." Zatanna's eyes snap open at the mention, staring at him with a puzzled look though her pupils are still trying to focus on him.

"Well I didn't, I found it overseeing a bunch of crooks loading crates down at the docks. We need the others in this, that thing is demonic and very powerful." She replies.

"No, the League stays out of this." Bruce replies calmly.

"What? Why?"

"The Shadow is an ally to me for the time being, leave her alone." Bruce says while getting up.

"You refer to it as a woman, why?" Zatanna asks sharply.

"Because I know who it is." He replies.

"How?" She asks, she knows Bruce's intimidation and detective skills are second to none, but she had the impression that the Shadow was not something you could intimidate as a mortal, no matter how big or scary you might be.

"She knows who I am and I demanded to know the same about her. Leave her alone Zee, until I say otherwise; she is a friend. Get better." Bruce replies before he leaves the mystified mystic alone.

Saturday noon, Central Gotham.

"You know, I thought your car was a lot more comfortable?" The blonde jokes at the large dark skinned man steeping out of the driver's seat.

"Well because of you I have green hair all over my baby's seats now." Victor complains. "So this is Gotham?" He says while eying the skyscrapers around him. Both him and Garfield are wearing holo-rings, making Victor look like any other large, bald man. Garfield has slightly pale pink skin, green eyes and dirty blonde hair. Victor is wearing black pants and a grey hooded gym-shirt, while Garfied settled with a white T-shirt, a pair of sneakers and blue baggy pants.

"I thought it would be dark, even in daytime?" Gar replies, noting the blue sky and sunny weather, making him glad he's not wearing anymore clothes than he is. Cyborg nods at the statement, neither of them had been in Gotham before and had only Robin's old stories about it to have an impression, so far the city was not even close to showing it. If getting carried away, Robin could describe Gotham as a circle of hell and right now Cyborg was wondering if he made a wrong turn somewhere and they ended up back in Metropolis, though his GPS makes it almost impossible for him to get lost.

"Well, we better check in." Cyborg says while digging out their baggage of the trunk, almost toppling Garfield when he throws his bag to him.

"You sure you're cool with leaving it here?" Beastboy asks, 'it' being the car, Victors pride and joy. Even it had received a disguise, making it look like a highly polished red sports car.

"It's cool, no one drives my baby without me." Vic says while smiling proudly, ever since he and Raven rebuilt the car he had been adding more and more security to it, to prevent it ever getting stolen again. The efforts have culminated in the car now needs a cable from Cyborg himself to start it without triggering the security measures; a number of armored plates that turns the car into a sealed prison for anyone attempting to drive away with it. Gar is still waiting to see it happen. "So after we check in, you wanna head out to check out the place?"

"Wander around in broad daylight in Gotham City? Do you even have to ask?" Garfield asks, smiling broadly.

30 minutes later the pair is walking down the paths of Saint Patrick's Park, unknown that they have already been detected by two birds and someone else. Both birds groaned loudly when they find out, the third just smiled inwardly at his fortune.

Later that night, the Batcave.

"Anything new on the Subject?" Batman asks the image of Raven, they had come to call the matters regarding Slade as the Subject. Which works as intended, it keeping Richard in the dark about it, but not overly suspicious of the matter as he knew Bruce would have reasons to keep some things between him and Raven alone, such as warning her of his intention to try and apprehend her. That case it would work on Nightwing and Robin to appear surprised at the initial encounter, and Richard knows Raven is on short leash now after Zatanna, cover was good, but not if it was bought by several weeks of intensive care.

"No." Raven replies with a flat tone in her voice, though Richard was certain her voice had been slightly more agitated when she spoke of the Subject earlier on.

"And you haven't been prying into Roman's mind about it?" Bruce continues.

"No, he would notice if I tried…and I would be off his payroll if I did." Raven shrugs, Richard smiles slightly at the small attempt at a joke.

"Keep up the act for now then, until we know more we can't act." Batman says with a hint of disappointment in his voice. Raven just nods before closing the transmission. "So where are you going?" He asks without turning to see Nightwing moving behind him to the vehicles.

"I got a thing or two I need to check up on before I start the first patrol." Nightwing replies unfazed as he mounts his bike, putting the black helmet over his head before speeding out of the cave.

The Gotham Arms hotel room of Victor Stone and Garfield Logan, 20 minutes later.

"Well its getting dark, you think it's time for us to head out?" Garfield asks, while staring out of the windows, noticing how much darker Gotham is compared to other cities at night.

"Yup, so I will take the west side, you take the east?" Cyborg replies as he emerges from the bathroom, Beastboy turns to look at him for a second before turning back to the windows.

"Yeah, figure I will go by air…WHOA!" Beastboy yelps as he jumps back from the windows as he is suddenly face to face with Nightwing hanging upside down on the outside. Nightwing taps the window with his finger twice, making Garfield scramble over to let him in. "Dude, you nearly gave me a heart attack! How'd you know we were here anyways?" Gar asks while closing the window behind their visitor.

"I have my ways." He says with a knowing smile at his two friends. "I guess you didn't just come to fair Gotham to sample its nightlife?"

"Sure we are, we just heard that the birds here are incredible around night time." Cyborg says with a smirk on his face but Nightwing just sighs.

"Look, I won't stop you from looking and so far Batman doesn't know you are here, or he doesn't care, yet. But your chances of finding her are slim and you probably won't recognize her when she is 'in cognito'. By the way; what are you expecting her to do if you do run into her?"

"Well we are hoping she sends us a message to meet us later somewhere." Gar admits to what Nightwing can tell is only a half-baked plan, one that apparently didn't factor in what Raven could be asked to do to them.

"Look, she is running with a gang, a vicious one, and so far is always around some of them. If they see you in disguise, they will most likely try and mug you if not worse. If you go as yourselves, they will leave it to her to deal with you."

"I think we can survive a mock battle with her." Cyborg says confidently. Nightwing opts for the last attempt to deter his friends

"Batman had two others helping him, trying to find her before we knew. One of them tried to take her down last night, after being told to lay off. She was left on the hospital steps with broken ribs and a laceration in her arm. Just think about what that will do to her if you force her to do that to you...or worse, the guy she's keeping tabs on is a real piece of work even by Gotham standards."

"We both want to talk to her Rob, we haven't had the chance yet." Cyborg replies flatly.

"I can only ask you to be patient, Rae only came to Gotham because she felt more at home here, according to herself. And she wants to prove herself to Batman, so she is committed to do what she has to."

"But dude that could take weeks if not months." Gar says, remembering all of the old stories about how stubborn Batman could be.

"If it makes you feel better, she is progressing faster with him than anyone I've ever seen before; she is even looking into something he won't tell me or Robin about." Nightwing admitting that the special case did annoy him to be left out of.

"It's been too long for both of us to be sitting on the sideline and wait Rob. Look I know this might hurt some people, but we are going to try." Cyborg explains. "And we are old enough to handle this…even if this is Gotham."

"Or you could just show us where you hide her when she is not playing bad." Beastboy asks slyly with a wink as Nightwing reopens the window.

"I can't do that Gar, but I won't stop you from looking, just be careful out there. This city is more dangerous than any other and it keeps finding things to throw at you." Nightwing says before jumping out of the window, gliding off into the night with his arms spread, leaving the duo behind. The pair leaves by the front door in regular clothes a quarter of an hour later, not realizing they are being followed.

* * *

Please review :)


	8. Deathblow

Black Masks waiting room, an hour and a half later.

Shadow is growing tired of this; she is still waiting after 10 minutes outside his door. Even when she knows it is just to unnerve people, there are still only 9 people in the other room, it is not his dinner time and nothing is out of the ordinary. Finally the bruiser she met on the first night, only going by Sam, opens the door to let her in. Mask is sitting at his desk, looking over a few papers. He looks up slightly when she enters, before putting the papers down.

"You wanted to see me Boss?" Shadow asks.

"I did, even if you have been in my employ for less than a month, apparently someone is already interested in your talents." Shadow remains silent, knowing Mask is going to continue. "A certain someone has approached me with a request to hire you temporarily. He is in need of your skills to balance a game he is playing. Normally I won't let even possible competition have an edge over me, but he offered enough for me to sideline that this once." Shadow can't help but notice there is a slight spike in Romans levels of fear.

"_Leaving you alive appears to be one of them."_ She notes as she guesses who it was, Mask always appeared calm and collected when doing business, but if the memory was enough to trigger something in him tells her that the other party was scary, even to a guy with his own torture chamber. "So when do I get to meet this mystery man?" She asks.

"He is late, it seems, but in this city something with pointy ears could have gotten to him." Mask says with an annoyed tone. "Just sit, or hover, for the time being." He says before going back to his paperwork. After a few moments of silence his assistant from outside sends the missing man in. The man in question appears calm and collected, not at all worried about the meeting or his own punctuality, more like a king entering a court of lower people, which was probably an adequate description of the situation.

"My apologies Black Mask, but I had some heavy cargo I needed to move to a safe spot." Slade says as he walks inside, nodding to Shadow as the doors are closed after him.

"_Bingo." _Shadow notes, Deathstroke was the kind who could unnerve and threaten Mask in his own office by reputation alone and obviously Mask knew his guards wouldn't be a match for Slade.

"Good of you to make it Deathstroke, I believe you have met the Shadow." Mask says while motioning towards her.

"We haven't been properly introduced." Slade says while extending his hand to the swirling shadow. She just looks at it before he retracts it. "But I have heard plenty, of course."

"Shadow, this is Deathstroke, he is the one that wishes to hire you." Mask motions with a pencil as if she didn't hear anything when not addressed, which could have to do with her rarely openly noticing any of the others.

"Charmed, I'm sure, I'd shake your hand, but I don't have any of my own." Shadow replies. "Curious, would you be the same Deathstroke that was rumored to operate in Jump City a few years back?" Slade clears his throat at this, making her smirk internally, if anything he wasn't proud of his deeds there.

"That I am." He acknowledges. "Can I ask which rumors that would be?"

"I know someone who knows someone in the H.I.V.E." Shadow lies through her teeth. "They said you were never caught by the Titans." Shadow knows he is smiling beneath his mask at the mention.

"Those children never came close. But we must be going, if you will?" He says while motioning her to follow him.

The pair leaves the building and begins to walk down the dark alleyways. Shadow decides it's time to pry some more.

"You know, that evading capture was not the only rumor I heard about you?" Slade makes no motion that he is bothered by the mention, but a cocktail of emotions say otherwise. She smiles a little more, mostly at herself, empathy could be a real horror to have, but it was a great in cases like these, she hadn't met anyone yet who didn't have at least some flares like Slade is having.

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"That you tried on several occasions to train someone to follow in your footsteps."

"Ah yes, my unfortunate apprentices, its true I tried, sadly they proved too stupid or too stubborn to know a good deal when it was offered them. Why ask?" He replies.

"Curiosity, I was wondering if you have one at the moment."

"I am hesitant to take a new one at the moment; Red X was such a disappointment."

"Never heard of him."

"Never will, the boy was smart enough to run after his humiliating defeat. Were you hoping I might take you?"

"Not really, I think I'm doing well as I am. Could I be so bold to ask where we are heading?" Slade walks silently, deciding to tell or not for a few moments.

"You will see, it's a surprise." Again she is certain he is smirking underneath that mask of his.

After traveling for what feels like hours, the pair exits the alleys they had kept to and see the retired warship; the USS Gotham. One of the largest battleships ever built at its completion by the end of the Pacific War, it had never left the harbor as the Navy began focusing less on main battleships in favor of the highly successful aircraft carriers. Instead the ship remained in port, as a monument of the city's capabilities and of the war, as this ship was the first navy vessel to be built here. Today, over half a century after the conclusion of the war, it remains one of the city's most popular tourist attractions with thousands of visitors each year while being maintained to keep it fully operational when the tourist season is out. Slade leads her up the gangplank and below deck, into the maze of steel. Walking and climbing down what seems like endless amount of stairs and corridors, the pair emerges into a large hall, originally meant for storage, now Slade's Gotham lair. Shadow is not surprised that much of the area is covered by wires and computers, but she is alarmed when she spots the two figures being held captive here.

"And here we are; as you can see I have a pair of guests waiting here." Shadow wastes no time, knowing time was up the essence.

"_Richard?"_

"_Hey Rae, what's up?" _Richard replies.

"_I need you to get yourself, Batman and Robin down to the USS Gotham. I can't tell you anything more than its big; tell Batman the Subject is in the trap."_

"_Ok, we will be there shortly."_

Both Cyborg and Beastboy are unconscious by the looks of it; Cyborg's limbs are welded down with pieces of metal to the gurney he is lying on. Beastboy is floating in a glass tank filled with water with an oxygen mask that covers his face. Raven is unsure about this; this could be Slade trying to flush her out, but then again.

"Aren't those…?" She asks.

"Cyborg and Beastboy of the Teen Titans, yes. I was surprised when I discovered them here in Gotham, but it will make my job a bit easier."

"So they aren't just here for personal vengeance?"

"No, they will help me flush out a certain bird, which I know nests in this city. But unfortunately I believe it has taken up a different identity, and my employers were specific they wanted a particular one."

"The Robin from Jump City?" She replies.

"Precisely, but before I can lure him out, I want to know everything those two can tell me about him and his mentor." Raven sighs to herself, it is time and now Slade is going to suffer for the pain he inflicted on her and her friends.

"They can tell you nothing I couldn't." She says with a dangerous tone, something that alerts Slade.

"And why would that be?"

"Because I work for him, but this will be your own making. Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven yells in her own voice as Shadow explodes outwards leaving everything in darkness. Slade's vision returns as the backup generators kick in, the first thing he sees is the empty gurney and tank before noticing 'Shadow' has vanished with them.

"So you didn't die after all Raven, as all of the papers claimed." Slade says into the darkness. "You know my offer still stands?"

"I will never side with you Slade, and why would I?" He can't see her, but he cautiously moves through the door he hears her voice coming from, which leads into an empty store room. The light bulb in the room is flashing irregularly, making it hard to see anything other than a few empty racks along the walls and the open door to the dark back room. As Slade steps through the door it slams shut behind him and the light bulb dies for a few seconds. As the light flashes back on, Slade catches a glimpse of something standing at the back of the room, between the far wall and a rack on the right. He carefully walks through the room towards it. The light blinks out again as he crosses the halfway mark and returns again showing no sign of anything being where he saw of the figure. Itching around the corner, Slade draws a gun from his belt, the light flickers once and Slade jumps around the rack pointing his gun at; nothing. There is nothing in the corner; Slade just stares at the empty space, trying to calm himself down.

He won't admit it to himself, but he is nervous about the situation, there are very few people he doesn't want be left alone with when he is unprepared and Raven is one of them. The light flickers off and on again, as the light returns Slade only sees a large black shape with pointed ears that wasn't there a second ago, before it throws a punch to the side of his head sends his vision spinning and gun out of his hands. Regaining his vision, he sees the Dark Knight of Gotham standing in front of him silent and unmoving, Slade slips into a fighting stance out of reflex staring at his opponent. He stares at the man for a second before the light flickers again; leaving Slade alone in the room again, Batman has vanished.

"_She's playing with me!"_ Slade realizes, a click from behind him makes him spin around only to see the door swing open again on its own as the room appears strangely tilted. Slade moves quickly out of the closed room, not wanting to be trapped with a flickering light and whatever Raven thinks of. Looking around his command center, he sees the overhead light is much brighter than it should be, it's almost painful. Knowing Raven is here somewhere, he decides to fall back on the tried and tested method of baiting his opponent out.

"I know you are here Raven, you may as well come out and fight me. Rest assured I will find your friends again!" The only reply he receives is the light dimming to its normal level. Slade keeps scanning the room in front of him for anything, getting blindsided by an iron rod to the side of his head sending him to the ground.

"You have grown soft Slade, back in the day I could hardly touch you, now you are not even worth the effort." Robin the Boy Wonder of Jump City mocks Slade as the masked villain jumps back onto his feet. Not replying Slade leaps at the boy swinging a fist at his head thinking it was Raven, Robin doesn't even budge at the impact that feels like punching solid steel. "Like I said, weak." Robin gives Slade a rough shove in the chest, sending him back on the ground. Slade reacts fast and leaps back to his feet, seeing no trace of the boy.

"Your mind games won't work on me Raven!" Slade yells, soft mocking laughter that echoes itself is all he receives as a reply. Slade spots a large shadow moving behind one of his computer banks with heavy footfalls, weary of another trick he leaps over the machine landing in front of a monstrous grey skinned man with a cracked iron mask; the same one he blew up when Trigon cheated him. The red eye staring at him through the cracked helmet makes Slade recognizes him immediately.

"The Master never approved of your theft from him mortal. Time to return your bones to the grave!" The raspy metallic voice of the thing echoes in Slade's head as it raises its strange bladed weapon causing it to burst into flames. Slade narrowly ducks out of the way as the axe blade descends upon him, this is a fight he can't win he realizes. Raven is digging up one of his fears after the other before making them real, he notices as the blade is buried in the metal floor. Slade meets the stare of the grey juggernaut again. "You cannot escape me, mortal." One part of Slade he rarely admits even exists takes control of his body, as he races away from the brute he can hear charging after him with its heavy footsteps. Dodging a blow meant for his neck, he dives through a narrow door, pulling it shut behind him. The metal walls are bent out of shape as the being on the other side collides with it. Slade hears it talking from the other side. "You cannot hide mortal, I will find you and return what belongs to the Master!" The heavy foot falls tells Slade that the thing has moved on, he takes a moment to calm himself leaning against the wall with his hands on his knees.

Feeling calm and centered again, Slade looks around himself, noticing he is not in the hall he usually uses to come and go. His mind racing he realizes he has a long way to go before he can get out of the ships bowels, five levels to be precise. Just as he is about to begin his journey, the light flickers again and he spots her standing next to the staircase he was going to climb. She doesn't move, her long blue cloak covers everything, but the shape is unmistakable though not even her eyes are showing. Slade pounces on her, grabbing hold of her cloak near the collar and lifts her off the floor.

"Witch!" Slade growls at her, his mind not even registering that the light doesn't penetrate the darkness under her cloak. The light flickers once and Slade finds himself staring into four red eyes, before he can do anything the light shorts out for a second before flashing rapidly. Slade almost blacks out at the sight while he falls to the ground; Ravens hood falls back letting her long white hair move around like snakes, her flesh is red and her mouth is filled with pointed teeth. Slade's ears begin ringing as Raven roars at him with enough force to make the walls shake; Slade is frozen in place at the sight, only the sharp pain of a slash across his midsection brings him out of it. Throwing Raven away, not noticing she fades out of sight before hitting anything, he inspects the wound, finding it almost deep enough to have disemboweled him. A pale hand reaches out and touches the wound, a blue glow surrounding it, the wound closes and the pain disappears. Slade looks up in surprise at the Raven he once knew standing beside him, she looks at him with a strange expression, like she is in great pain.

"Run Slade, I am not sure I can hold my anger back much longer." She whispers while backing away from him, he just stares at her until he spots two red flashes on her forehead, that quickly disappear again. "Run!" She yells at him as she presses herself into a corner, Slade bolts up the stairs. Making it halfway to the next stair case, he hears deep rumbling laughter coming from behind him.

"We are coming for you Slade! COMING FOR YOUR SOUL! YOUR FLESH AND BLOOD!" Raven screams from behind him.

Slade keeps running, now in almost blind panic, desperate to get away from her, though a small part of his mind knows it is futile, she has already won. Slowly but surely she guides Slade around the ship, whenever he gains confidence or defiance she makes a new spirit breaking horror appear, whenever he goes a route she doesn't want he ends up in new nightmare forcing him back, each time the visions become worse. Finally reaching the top deck of the ship Slade makes one final mistake, turning down the wrong corridor his mind snaps at the sight, leaving him staring silently at the sight.

At the wall lie the bodies of Wintergreen, his butler, his oldest and best friend, his eyes are wide and staring in mute horror, the blood leaking from his throat evident of the method of his demise. Over the old man is the body of his only daughter, Rose lying on her belly with multiple stab wounds in her back, so many it couldn't only have been done in a frenzy. Behind the two, on the floor, is the large form of his oldest son, Grant, like his half-sister he is lying on his belly, unlike her, his head is twisted so far around it is starting at the ceiling with a half-open mouth telling Slade his son was wearing surprised if not dumbfounded expression now. Across the corridor from the first three, is his ex-wife Adeline sitting up against the wall, a large hunting knife is lodged in her chest, nailing her to the opposite wall. Slade drops to his knees at the sight, his mind had given up on figuring out what was real and what was not long before this.

"Why… Who..?" Slade voice is breaking; beyond the verge of tears at the sight of his butchered family.

"You should know these relationships will only slow you down in the end, I am merely doing you a favor." A familiar voice comes from down the corridor, past the bodies. Slade looks to see a tall man walk into the light, carrying a boy with blond hair by the throat, forcing him to look forwards. Slade's minds reels again as he sees himself in his prime, the way the Titans knew him, the cold and calculating monster, holding his youngest son Joey in an iron grip facing him. "Only one more to go and you will be free to do whatever you want with no one to have anything to hold against you." His mirror image intones as he moves his right hand to Joeys left cheek, Slade already knows what is about to happen.

"NOOO!" Slade screams as he rushes his double as it pulls, the sharp cracking sound of Joey's neck breaking is the only thing he hears. The double disappears with a satisfied gleam in his eye, letting Joey fall to the ground. Slade collapses next to his son, his tears falling freely now from his lone eye. He doesn't know how long he was sitting there, cradling his son in his arms gradually feeling the warmth of his body leaving it. He doesn't even notice the shape of his tormentor come into being in front of him.

"So you murdered them all, all in the name of your ambition." Slade looks up into the featureless black hole under Raven's hood. "Feel bad you never said goodbye? I can fix that." Raven snaps her fingers, Slade almost jumps as Joey begins to twitch, his mind turns to dread when the boy uses his hands to move his head around. Slade helps by holding his head so the mute boy can sign him what he has to say, his hands move slowly at first then picking up speed a little.

"Why, why did you do it dad?" Slade voices the signing. "Oh son, I didn't mean to, I didn't want to see you die." Slade reads Joey's lips next as they scream "LIAR!", he jumps away as the boy reaches for his throat intent on strangling him. Slade runs as fast as he can over the now twitching bodies, away from Raven, away from all of the dead rising against him. Seeing a light up ahead, Slade doubles his efforts, finding a doorway with pale light shining through it, a sound behind him makes him turn around. The shadows are coming alive behind him, something begins to move towards him, sending its black tendrils out towards him, Slade leaps out of the doorway into the bright moon light bathing the main deck with a scream.

A little while ago, outside.

"Guys, what the heck happened to you?" Nightwing says as he finds Cyborg sitting on the ground with his back to the ships visitor center rubbing his head, Beastboy lying next to him. Cyborg looks up in surprise of the voice.

"Beats me man, me and green bean were about to split up in our search then something hit me on the back of the head and I wake up here." Cyborg doesn't seem to notice the figures of Batman or Robin moving up behind Nightwing.

"Is that..." Robin asks as he eyes the pair.

"Not now! What are they doing here?" Batman demands, Nightwing sighs.

"They came looking for Raven."

"They are about to meet her." Cyborg looks at Batman with a questioning look mixed with annoyance.

"Mind telling the rest of us now what this Subject is now?" Nightwing asks his tone one that demands to know what they are all doing here and what they are getting into.

"Raven called the three of us here, because Slade 'Deathstroke' Wilson has been in this city for some time now." Batman waits a second for the response he knows will come, he needs them sharp for the fight that's coming.

"WHAT!?" Both Cyborg and Nightwing yell, waking Beastboy in the process. The outburst having passed Batman continues.

"Raven encountered him in Black Masks office the first day she was there, I have had her look discreetly into him since then, ordering her to call us the moment she could corner him alone."

"It was Slade who jumped me and Cy, I caught a glimpse of his mask before he knocked me out." Beastboy admits with a groan.

"Hold up, so Rea is alone with that monster on that giant tub!?" Cyborg yells as he gets to his feet waving his arms at the ship.

A scream is heard from the ship, freezing everyone for a second before everyone runs towards and up the boarding plank to the main deck. The group fans out on the deck, looking at several possible doorways the scream could have come from. Hurried footfalls is the first thing they hear coming from one doorway, the sound of someone running, everyone raises a weapon, sonic cannons, bat and birdarangs and Beastboy changes into a lion.

The group fires as one as Slade bursts from the doorway with a scream, his reflexes makes him able to dodge the attacks. The three Titans notice a wild look in his eye, something they have never seen in him before. After he lands Slade looks at them, his eye grows even wider.

"NOO!" He screams before bolting towards the boarding plank, he reaches half way over before a mass of shadows tumble out of the doorway he came from, the tentacles sprouting from it, reacting lightning fast race over and tangle themselves around the fleeing mans legs, causing him to crash to the round. The man struggles frantically to free himself and to hold onto something to prevent him from coming any closer to the main body of the thing, scratching marks into the paint and steel of the deck. "Please no! I surrender!" Slade screams as he is about to be swallowed by the darkness as he is halfway in, the thing stops pulling him in before spitting him out, leaving Slade to curl up into a ball trembling.

The group of former Titans stare wide eyed in disbelief, they had seen this before, only back then it had been the mentally unstable Arthur Light that was the receiver. Now they see Slade, the monster, the coldhearted devil dealer in the same state, scared out of his mind. The mass of shadows seem to shrink into itself, coming together into the body of a young woman wearing a deep blue hood and cloak, her deep purple eyes look at the group for a moment, before she pulls her hood down revealing her as grey skin and purple hair and an extremely weary look in her eyes.

"Hi guys." Is Ravens only greeting before she collapses onto the steel deck; unconscious.

Raven wakes up to the sound of rushing water, bats squabbling and group of people standing around her.

"Welcome back Rae, we missed you." Cyborg says with a huge smile plastered on his face. Raven almost smiles at him, but is jumped by a certain green changeling.

"Raven!" Beastboy yells happily before jumping off again, noticing the annoyed look in her eyes.

"Good to see you two as well." Raven says with a slight smile, as she sits up in the hospital bed Jason used. "You mind getting me a bag of ice, I got a headache." She asks and soon enough Nightwing hands her one. "How long was I out?"

"About three hours." Nightwing replies.

"Raven, what happened?" Batman asks from behind the group, sounding less than pleased.

"Slade wanted to hire my services from Black Mask, he wanted me to 'even the odds' against you for a group of…people that had hired him to find Robin from Jump City."

"Rae why didn't you tell me he was here?" Nightwing interrupts.

"Because I know you, and what you would have done if you knew. And that I might have to fight you in Black Mask's office to keep up a front was not a thing I wanted to do. Where is Slade now?" She replies, turning to Batman with the question.

"Arkham." Batman says "No one is able to make any lasting contact with him; he is jumping at every shadow or anything that moves too fast. What did you do to him?"

"The Titans and I learned that if I suppress my fears too much, they take over my powers, like the incident turned the tower into a haunted house. It was something like that, I animated his fears, leading him around the ship, and whenever he made a wrong turn another one would appear." Raven explains.

"So you had him run through a gauntlet of his own fears?" Robin asks, Raven nods in reply.

"Making someone insane is too far Raven, we have to be above personal vendetta's." Batman sighs, wondering if this was risk worth having. "Do you happen to know who hired him?" He continues, the others hadn't seen it but his eyes had widened slightly at the mention of one of his clan being a target, and specifically named like that.

"No, but I can go ask him." Raven sighs again internally berating herself for letting her vindictive nature get the better of her for once and at such a stupid time too.

"Uhh, no offence Rae, but if he sees you now, wont we just risk having him try to dig through the wall?" Beastboy asks.

"Well yes, but whenever Slade was injured down there, I appeared and helped him, it told him it was my anger that was running the show and whenever I appeared it was because I was temporarily in control again. I can get the information we want, but I have to see him to do it. But if you feel that I shouldn't?" She asks while looking at Batman, getting a reluctant nod from him she gets off the bed, Beastboy and Cyborg notes for the first time how tall she is compared to them.

"That is so unfair…" Beastboy mutters realizing he is going to be the shortest member of the group.

"So who's coming?" Raven says while putting down the ice bag and flips up her hood. They all agree to go and are enveloped by the darkness.

The strange assemble appears outside the front door of Arkham Asylum, after Batman grunts a few times at a few orderlies they are led down the corridors under instruction that only three of them can be in the hall where Slade's cell is. Naturally those three are Raven, Nightwing and Batman, leaving Beastboy, Cyborg and Robin at a bench.

"They haven't removed his costume?" Raven notes quietly as she sees Slade sitting in a corner of his padded 'suite' still wearing his mask, black combat suit and a straightjacket. The rest of the room is as white as the padded walls; bed and floor; as it is deep inside the institute, there are no windows. And the three are looking at the patient through a sheet of reinforced one way looking glass.

"No one would try after the first time; one orderly was almost electrocuted when he tried to remove the mask." Batman replies, Raven nods at him.

"So besides who hired him, would there be anything else you would like me to ask him?" Both men note that it is more of a control question for their sake.

"Ask him if he has any other hideouts or associates in Gotham." Raven nods at Batman before turning to Nightwing.

"Ask him how he lost his eye." Raven doesn't know why he wants to know that, but she nods before opening the door and enters.

Slade eye grows wide when Raven enters slowly and just stares as she closes the door after her, physically sealing herself inside with him. A doctor having joined the two other viewers outside notes this is the first time he has reacted to anything around him so suddenly. She moves slowly to sit next to the door with her back to the spectators; Raven lets a minute pass before attempting to speak to him.

"Slade?" Her voice is soft, but monotone. He reacts instantly, trying to free himself and get further into the corner. Outside Batman motions for the doctor to keep watching as the man was about to interfere. "Don't fear, I am not angry with you, I've gotten control of it now." The spectators outside notice she is talking like she is approaching a frightened child, her voice seem to calm him somewhat.

"How…how can I know?" Slade stammers while he keeps trying to press himself further into the corner.

"Will it help if I take off my hood?" She suggests, Slade nods slowly after a few seconds and Raven pulls back her hood revealing the top of her purple hair to the spectators.

"Th…thank you."

"It's ok, look I have a few questions for you. Will you help me figuring them out?" She asks.

"Su…Sure, but could you get this, off my face?" Raven nods and slowly gets up and approaches him, kneeling down next to him. "Th...there is a clasp, un..under the chin, a-and behind the ears." Nightwing feels a pang of irritation as Raven steps in front of Slade blocking the view as she undoes the mask.

"Better?" Raven asks as she steps back from Slade, holding the sections of the mask in her hands.

"Much, thank you." Raven sits down on the same spot as before, leaving the parts next to her. Batman confirms that the man inside is indeed Slade Wilson, his white eye patch and nearly white hair and goatee are the same as the ones he sports on the picture he has filed in the cave. To Nightwing it is a revelation to see the face that was unknown to him for so long. "W…what do you wish to know?" Raven decides to start of light.

"The doctors here need to get you out of your uniform in case they need to tend to you, but there are traps in it preventing them."

"Th...they are controlled by the mask, with it off they become inactive." He explains, outside the doctor is busy taking notes.

"I am sure the doctors will be very happy to hear that. " Raven assures him. "You said someone hired you to find and capture Robin, who are they?"

"They…they contacted me a few weeks ago, through one of my contacts. They promised me the Bat and a large sum of money, if they could have Robin. Th…they didn't seem to know that the Robin they wanted was gone. But I knew their leader would know the difference between the one before and the one here in Gotham. I was originally planning to capture the new Robin, so I could force Batman to tell me where the old one was, but when your friends appeared I decided to skip the middleman." Slade explains

"Who are they?" Raven asks sternly, it makes Slade cringe.

"They…they where tamaranians, like Starfire." Slade says hastily, apparently scared of receiving Raven anger again. She stares at him for a few seconds gauging if he is lying or not.

"Starfire left four years ago to become their ruler, why would she hire you to find Robin?" Raven asks.

"I...I met their messengers, they gloated how Earth had dulled the Princess' mind, allowing her to be lured into an ambush. She never became their ruler…" Raven blocks the door with her powers as well as reinforcing the window before she leaps at Slade lifting him off the floor as he yelps in panic. Batman, who is the only one not frantically, trying to get inside the cell or running to get help, notices Slade squirms and grows pale.

"Who set this up?! WHO IS THEIR LEADER?!" Raven yells at him.

"B…B…Blackfire, she is their leader, it was her plan to lure Starfire away. Pl…please…don't hurt me!" Slade begs. Raven stares at him for a moment before putting him down on the ground, she doesn't unblock the door and window though as she still has questions that need answers.

"Blackfire was dead, last I heard?" Raven towers above Slade as he collapses on the ground before her.

"No, her death was a ruse to lure Starfire away at the right time….I…I don't know if she's alive, they never said!"

"When and where you planning on handing Robin over and where?"

"The docks to the south, they will bring a platoon to the pickup spot in two days. I couldn't tell them which pier as they wouldn't know which it was, I was to fire a flare into the sky to signal them." Slade explains, Raven nods before continuing with the requested questions.

"There are some people who have requested me to ask these last two questions Slade. The first being if you have brought any associates to Gotham and if you have other hideouts besides the one on the USS Gotham?"

"I… I work alone here, I only have one other place, the basement of an abandoned Dagget production facility on the west side. I met with the tamaranians in the sewers, under Jefferson Street, there is a old maintenance room." Batman makes a note to have the place decommissioned as soon as possible, if it exists.

"The second question is how you lost your eye." Raven notes the man in front of her becoming lost in thought at the mention. "Slade?"

"I…I once had a wife and two kids. After I was kicked out of the military for saving Wintergreen, my butler. I became a mercenary. I kept it hidden from my wife, Adeline. She found out the day one of my employers, they were….displeased that I refused to kill a kid, they sent an assassin after me. He held my youngest son, Joseph, captive with a knife to his throat. I made the wrong choice in front of my wife, instead of doing everything to save Joey, I killed the man. Joey was alive, but the man had cut his throat, rendering him mute. Adeline divorced me by trying to shoot me in the head, I couldn't blame her so I left her and the kids behind, taking Wintergreen with me. Dear God! What did I do to them? I killed them all!" Slade breaks down in tears in front of Raven, one spectator is in disbelief at the sound.

"Wilson, you did not murder your family. Slade did, in your head, the day he was born was the day you left them and decided any feelings of companionship was a burden. If you choose to, you can become the man your wife loved, not the monster you have been hiding behind all these years. Put away the mask and remember the man. Joseph still wants you as a father." Raven replies somehow still finding sympathy for the man who has been hiding behind a monster, like her, the end of all things mortal in the shell of a girl.

"How…? How do you know?" Slade asks at her mention of his youngest son.

"Joey is an honorary Titan, he is known as Jericho. In the year I was gone I visited him, if you can make it out of here come find me and I will show you where he is." Raven promises as she turns from him and begin walking towards the door.

"Ra…Raven, could you do two things for me before you go?" Slade asks, Raven turns around looking at him. "Take the mask with you, give it to your Robin, tell him Slade is dead. And do you know if 'he' is still coming for me?" Raven picks up the pieces of the mask before answering.

"I promise you, if you get well and lay down your mask. I will make sure he will never come for you, but mark my words, if you pick up the mask again, I will lead him straight to your doorstep." Slade nods his understanding; Raven gives him a slight smile before raising her hood and leaving the room.

Closing the door behind her, Raven is quickly surrounded by orderlies.

"You, young lady, have no right to come in here and treat our patients like that! The mind is a fragile thing and his is in tatters now because of you!" An angry doctor shout at her, Raven just stares at him. The orderlies around her are hesitant to actually grab her.

"I am well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the mind, and he will get better faster than you might think." Raven replies flatly. "And before you say otherwise, he is not innocent." The doctor just grows redder in the face.

"I will ask you to leave." He finally growls with a stressed politeness.

"I have what I came for." She shrugs before beginning to walk down the cell block, pushing past the orderlies. Batman and Nightwing follow after her, noticing that she has stopped at Crane's cell. "He was working on a large fear gas bomb, it's in the basement of this old factory." She states before moving on, Crane still hasn't changed since he was brought in.

"How do you know, neither of you showed any signs of you entering his mind?" Batman asks quietly as they catch up.

"I just remembered what was most prominently in his surface thoughts the night I jumped him." Raven states, before walking on to collect the three member of their group not there, passing Nightwing the helmet along the way there.

Meanwhile in the Gotham Memorial Hospital.

Zatanna respects Bruce for what he's doing, for the things he had done. But this is beyond him, the Shadow is too powerful for him to control, in reality Zatanna thought it might be the other way around. She knows Bruce doesn't trust magic; it's simply beyond his understanding most of the time, which includes herself. That he would ally himself with something like the Shadow, over her, is beyond her_. "The Shadow must be controlling him_." She notes to herself again at the conclusion she had arrived as the most likely explanation.

She believes Batman is in need of saving, and the League will be coming once she gets hold of them. It took what seemed forever for her to get hold of a phone, but now she has one and is waiting for a pick up.

"This is J'onn." The Martian answers from the other end, the League has set up a special line for its members to prevent them from getting bogged down with civilians asking for aid.

"Hey J'onn, it's me Zatanna. Look, I need someone to come get me from the Gotham Memorial Hospital; I'm in a bad shape at the moment. And I need to have a meeting."

"We have the teleporter's up and running at the moment; we will get you in a few moments." The Martian replies before hanging up. A few moments later, Zatanna is enveloped in blue energy before she disappears from Gotham.


	9. Return to the Mansion

Batcave:

"Ok, so let me get this straight. We are going to have 30-50 'Starfires' showing up here looking for him?" Cyborg asks while thumbing at Nightwing. "And Star is not even one of them?"

"That seems to be the case." Raven confirms with her fingers folded in front of her. The group of 6 has taken seats at a round table on the platform below the memorial suits. Batman not trusting any of the three new arrivals with his identity yet, is stretching himself just by letting them inside the cave again, glad he had installed a few devices to scramble the signals he knows Cyborg had inside himself, and that he had the same signals scramblers in the car.

"The question is; why would they want me? If Blackfire is really alive and ruling them." Nightwing asks while looking at Raven for some kind of confirmation, while tapping the assembled Slade masks in front of him absent mindedly.

"I detected no lies from Slade, he was too scared to tell me anything but the truth." Batman had noted all the while in Arkham how effective Raven had been in interrogating Slade, usually he himself had to chase and interrogate someone several times to get the same reaction, he was mildly impressed, though most of him was worried about Slades lapse into insanity.

"Could it be because she is Starfire's sister and is really in love with you?" Tim asks, Beastboy snickers and Raven rolls her eyes along with Nightwing. Richard was well aware of how he was unconsciously able to woo women just by talking to them or by being near them; the exceptions had always been the ones that tried to kill him and Raven.

"That may be, but if what you have told me of her is correct. Starfire may be alive and Blackfire just wants you to deepen her sister's misery in some way." Batman theorizes, bringing back the memories amongst the Titans of how cruel that particular tamaranian could be.

"It is possible, Blackfire once tried to have Star married off to…some thing, while she held the crown on their planet." Cyborg says while he is internally replaying the whole incident in fast forward.

"Motives aside. The why in this case is not the most immediate concern, in two days time; Gotham will be invaded by a group of super strong aliens. And from what I know of Blackfire, they will most likely start breaking things if they don't find him." Batman states, indicating that the direction of the meeting has gone far enough down a track best left for later. "We need to plan on how to deal with this."

"Call in the League?" Beastboy asks timidly, Batman fixes him with a stare that makes him melt. "Sorry."

"Not in here dude." Tim whispers to him.

"I admit alien invasions are more in Superman's department, but if possible I will prefer keeping them out of Gotham."

"We could ask Jason?" Raven suggests, remembering that his arm should be more or less healed by now.

"Only if he can guarantee to keep his other self in check." Batman says after a moment in thought.

"I can talk to him about that." Raven ensures. "If you will allow it?"

"Ok, so it's the 6 of us and a dude called Jason, against 30-50 aliens that can have several tons dropped on them?" Beastboy asks.

"Numbers mean nothing if you choose the correct place to fight." Nightwing and Robin say almost simultaneously.

"You want them in the sewers, don't you?" Raven asks while looking at Batman, while thinking about how hampered Starfire became in small spaces.

"If we can lead them down there and force them to spilt up we can pick them off; one by one." Batman replies, Raven smiles inwardly at second guessing him.

"I can understand you wanting to do this in a certain way, but I'm not built for stealth." Cyborg points at the bright blue pieces of armor on his arms and shoulders. "And I am no good against one Tamaranian in a straight fight, wasn't the last time I tried that is." Nightwing sighs, knowing Cyborg is the complete opposite of stealth, he likes the sound of his weapons and he likes showing off and shouting.

"I am not expecting us to all battle them all one on one, they won't allow it if they can get away with it. If we can get Jason to come, you will be paired with him. Nightwing and Robin will be paired together. Raven, you're with me. Beastboy, how many poisonous animals can you turn into?"

"Umm, all of them, but I need to know them and what they can do if you want something specific?" Garfield replies, wondering where this was going.

"Good, while the rest of us work in pairs. You can move around the tunnels virtually unseen, when you see an opening, bite them to slow them down." Beastboy now beams visibly, being handpicked by Batman for a mission. "If that is the battle plan?" They all nod their agreement to it. "We just need to lure them down there." A moment passes in silence before Raven speaks up, after having eyed Nightwing during most of it.

"Slade said he was expected to signal them in two days. But he never said Robin had to be with him when he did."

"So you said, what's your point Rae?" Cyborg asks.

"Slade can lure them into the sewers, it would be logical he wouldn't hand Robin over to them in an open space in case Batman caught wind of it."

"Umm, Rae, you do remember handing him a one way ticket to Hotel Arkham? Right?" Beastboy asks.

"I do, and I wasn't thinking of having him doing it." Raven admits while levitating the face of the mask Nightwing has in front of him. Nightwing cringes inwardly thinking of where this was going. "Slade claimed so many times that you were alike, do you think you could pretend to be him for a few moments?" She asks while letting the mask float to his hands, which he accepts.

"You know how much I feared I would become him Rae, I am not sure I can do this, not even pretend." Nightwing admits while looking at the piece of metal in his hands.

"You are stronger than that, and it will only be for a few moments. Once you get them into the sewers we will arrange for your sudden disappearance and you can get out of it." Batman adds, knowing how he would feel to pretend to be the Joker, he would do it and so would Richard, but they wouldn't like it. Nightwing seems lost in thought for a moment, before he slowly assembles the helmet around his head, the mask the last thing he puts in place. His one eye looks at the rest of them slowly.

"Dude, that is messed up." Beastboy realizes how right Raven is, Slade and Nightwing both have the same build; with a change of clothes no one could tell the difference between the two.

"This is the part of me that nearly killed you three, and that created Red-X." Nightwing says in his own voice, Raven thinks about something.

"Try talking again."

"Why?" Beastboy, Cyborg and Nightwing nearly jump's out of their chairs as Nightwing speaks with Slade's voice. Nightwing tears off the face plate looking irritated at Raven.

"Warn me next time you feel like doing that!" He warns in his own voice.

"Don't worry, it is only working when talking through the mask. I just thought you needed to sound like him, if you have to talk to them." Raven explains, Nightwing holds up the mask in front of his face again.

"Very amusing Raven." Slade's voice is back.

As Nightwing begins to take off the rest of the mask, Robin asks: "So what if they don't all follow you into the sewers?"

"If we can find an old warehouse with a sewer entrance in it, we could have it collapse on top of it. It wouldn't harm any of the tamaranians too much but it will make it hard for them to follow." Cyborg suggest.

"That should be possible to find." Batman intones, somehow signaling they had a battle plan and the meeting begins to spiral into more trivial subjects because of Robin and Nightwing being better a gauging when Bruce had more to talk about, Raven walks over to talk to Batman who is still seated.

"What about Roman?" Batman knows she is expecting to go back to his gang at some point or not.

"Do you know where they keep their guns and drugs?"

"I do, he has a small bunker's worth of small arms in the basement, drugs are mainly kept in a room on the 3rd floor."

"Anything else in there we might pin him with?"

"He's got some sort of torture chamber on the 7th."

"We can deal with Roman tomorrow; I'll alert the police about him."

"You not planning having us join in the raid?" She asks.

"No, the city needs to see they are the real law enforcement. We can watch the building while they go in, if Roman gets out, we pick him up. But if things get too hot, we move in, Roman is dangerous when cornered." Raven nods before changing the subject.

"Guess I have to go get those books of yours back."

"If you will, and could you clean up the place before you leave?"

"Will do." Batman nods at her.

"Everyone needs to get some rest; Raven will drop off Cyborg and Beastboy near their hotel. She, I will pick you up when we need to assemble tomorrow." Batman notes that it is actually 4 in the morning, after the bat-clan bids the three good night the former Titans are enveloped by shadows before disappearing from the cave. Leaving the three to stare at the empty spot.

"Gotta admit; that's kinda cool." Tim says.

"I will have to get used to that." Batman replies.

"Me too." Nightwing admits with a smile.

The hotel room.

Raven's soul-self retreats back into her, revealing herself and her two traveling companions, who seem somewhat happy to be out in the light again.

"You outta consider getting some heat in there." Cyborg slaps Beastboy in the back of the head for the remark.

"What he is really saying is, we are sure glad to see you again Rae." He says before scooping Raven up in a bear hug, lifting her off the floor. "And I'm not letting go until you say you've missed me too!" He says with a huge grin while Raven begins to turn blue and red.

"Cyborg…put me down…don't make me hurt you." Raven warns, Cyborg just continues to grin. "Oh very well, I've missed both of you." She gives in and returns the hug.

"That's all I wanted to hear for starters…and who Batman is." Cyborg smiles before putting Raven back on the ground.

"I've had to do some very unpleasant things to some people because I know."

"Oh, like what?"

"Do you really have to ask?" Both boys remember Slade screaming for his life and figure it's best not to ask further. Beastboy decides to just lead it onto another Bat related subject.

"So what he like and who is the kid in Rob's suit?"

"Batman is paranoid, untrusting of me, and obsessive. The kid is Nightwing's replacement; our Robin came back after traveling to find him with Batman. It was at that point he changed his costume. The new Robin was the first one of them I met here." Raven explains.

"Bet you were surprised." Beastboy smirks.

"I tore his badge off his chest before telling him to go home." Raven says matter-of-factly.

"Kinda the wrong impression to give, you know, attacking Robin?"

"I thought it was some kid pretending to be Robin, which in this town happens to be a death wish unless you really are him. But I think we need to stop our trip down memory lane, I doubt Batman is a man that sleeps in. But I promise we will talk when all of this is over." She promises.

"You know you sound overly optimistic, for one about to face a large group of hostile tamaranians?" Cyborg asks.

"Well, I could say that I will walk down memory lane with your cold bodies in a morgue, but Garfield would be a sad panda then." Both males pale at the morbid remark, before Beastboy turns into a sad-looking green panda. Raven gently pats his now huge head. "Well goodnight and see you tomorrow." She says before disappearing.

"Seemingly cold, straight to the point, biting sarcasm, yup it's her." Cyborg says while counting on his fingers, his 'things to remember about Raven' list. Beastboy changes back to his human form.

"She's changed though." Beastboy was actually thinking about how she was actively taking part in the planning. Back in the day she would only do so in Robin's absence, tonight she had done so with both him and Batman present, including putting Nightwing in a very unpleasant situation. Cyborg has noticed something else entirely.

"Yeah, she's taller than you." Cyborg mentions with humorous tone as he picks up his toothbrush and begins to walk towards the bathroom, contrary to popular belief in Jump City. Victor actually has real teeth in his head, which he tries to maintain.

"Dude! That not funny." Beastboy looks up with hurt expression at Cyborg's back.

"Not to mention you will be bald in a matter of years." Victor closes the door behind him fast enough to shield him from the pillow flying towards him, with a satisfied smile on his face.

Next morning around 7.

Raven appears again in the hotel room to a strange sight, Beastboy and Cyborg are sharing the huge bedroom. Fortunately they are both lying facing away from each other on different beds; Raven has a devious thought about having them roll over to wake up in each other's faces but thinks better of it, for starters.

"Guys, time to get up." She says in her quiet voice, the only reply is Cyborg beginning to snore.

"Guy's?" She tries a little louder, still nothing, Raven decides not to shout so she doesn't wake the neighbors. Instead she acts on the idea and has the beds tilt gently towards each other, dropping the pair into each other on the ground. The result is a mess of swearing and cursing machine, animal and man.

"Dude! What the hell?" Beastboy complains after getting most of his body trapped under Cyborg.

"I dunno grass stain; I ordered separate beds for a reason!" Cyborg growls after getting stuck under a green bear.

The struggle to be the first one to get up continues for a few minutes, Raven wishes she had had a camera for this, payback for the times this pair had been sneaking around with one to capture the others in embarrassing situations. Fortunately for her they stopped trying to get her caught after the time she disassembled the camera, she had been reading in the living room and Beastboy had run up her leg as huge rat, which freaked her out. After that the duo decided to focus on Robin, who didn't appreciate it either, and Starfire who didn't get the joke. Raven clears her throat to get the others to notice, which they do and stop fighting immediately.

"Umm, morning Rae?" Cyborg asks waving at her beneath bear.

"Raven? When did you get up?" Beastboy asks.

"About 20 minutes ago when Batman called, he sent me to pick you and whatever luggage you got." Raven states while crossing her arms across her chest, the sign of 'no-buts, get moving.' Cyborg had one nonetheless.

"Umm, Rae, my car is in the parking lot." Raven sighs.

"Well put your luggage and yourselves into it."

"So does this mean we get to live with Batman?!" Beastboy almost yells, clearly overjoyed at the thought.

"Yes, you do Beastboy, you get to share the cave." Raven replies in a defeated tone because she really hoped he would be past that stage after last night. "Now get packing." The duo, finally, begins and 10 minutes later they are both walking out of the hotel towards the parking lot. Raven had teleported out when they left, saying she would meet them down there. Cyborg had taken the precaution of making spare rings for him and Garfield, knowing of Gotham, they might get broken or stolen.

"I thought she said she was gonna meet us here?" Garfield complains seeing no one in the parking lot.

"Relax, she's probably just keeping out of sight." Victor reassures him, as he begins loading their stuff into the trunk.

"Or in plain sight, somewhat." Ravens voice speaks from below them, making both of them jump, seeing Ravens eyes staring back at them from their own combined shadow. "It's a trick I leaned while you were away, and don't argue with me here, people will think you're crazy." The pair looks at each other before pretending nothing was wrong. After getting in the car, Raven makes sure no one is watching them before dragging the car and its occupants into the shadows on the ground. Beastboy screams like a girl and Cyborg holds his nose closed, the pair is the image of being trapped aboard a sinking ship.

A moment later the car reappears a few inches above the floor in the Bat-cave, next to the other vehicles. Cyborg gets busy complaining to Beastboy about the rough landing of his baby as it's dropped, Gar puts his fingers in his ears to block him out. Raven emerges out of the shadows before the car, to face the sole person in the cave to greet them; Nightwing.

"I actually expected you later." He says smiling at Raven.

"Apparently Batman is enough to get Beastboy out of bed early." She replies as the duo behind her gets out of the car.

"Where is he by the way?" Beastboy asks while looking at every shadow big enough to hide the person in question.

"He's working, for now you'll have to make do with me. You two will need a tour of the place before we have combat practice."

"Same'ol same'ol, eh Rob?" Cyborg says while circling his right index finger in the air.

"Well, can't have you growing soft on me can I?" Nightwing counters before motioning for the pair to follow him. Raven excuses herself, heading up to the mansion by the staircase. "Going up there will not make Batman happy." Nightwing intones before any of the two can asks what's up there, making it quite clear that the stairs are off limits to them.

"She's changed a lot, hasn't she?" Cyborg asks after being introduced to the chemical lab.

"How much I can't say yet, but yes she's not the Raven we knew, not entirely. But leaving a person alone for four years will do that to anyone. She's more powerful now for one thing." Nightwing admits, the world-saving event Raven pulled off on her father was agreed by all, Raven included, was a onetime thing but he was wondering if that same power was still in there.

"Soo, when do I get to meet this partner of mine?" Cyborg asks, deciding to prod about a question that will define his role in this.

"Raven will be visiting him later today." Nightwing says. "Hopefully she can persuade him to come along."

Meanwhile in the kitchen.

"Ah, good morning miss Raven." Alfred greets her with a smile as he is cleaning the dishes the residents of the house used earlier. Raven is actually a bit surprised he notices her enter the room as the swing door makes little sound when opened, she guesses it comes down to having Batman as your employer.

"Good morning Alfred." She responds while sitting down on one of the tall seats at the table in the middle of the room.

"I trust you retrieved your companions successfully?" He asks while inspecting a porcelain cup for any spec that shouldn't be there.

"Richard is giving them the tour of the basement right now." She says before silently watching him work. "Do you clean it all by hand?"

"Why yes, it is after all my responsibility that there are no stains on the masters porcelain." Alfred proclaims proudly before asking something himself. "Do you believe the gentlemen down below will find their accommodations suitable?" Raven smirks a little at the word gentlemen, not something neither Richard nor herself would choose to call them, not Garfield anyway.

"If I know them right, one will be fighting to keep droppings off his car when he realizes it and the other will most likely have to be restrained so he doesn't demolish the cave." Alfred masks his laugh behind a cough while he wipes his hands in the white apron he wearing over his usual suit.

"Well I am sure we can find a remedy to the first problem. Would you care for some breakfast?" He asks.

"I would, thank you." Alfred smiles before busying himself with white bread, butter, tea and the like, Raven feels kind of weird having the elderly man run around the kitchen for her. Something she notes when he serves her a cup of tea along with a few slices of bread. "You know, I still feel a bit like an intruder here."

"Oh, how so?" Alfred asks with a bit of worry in his voice.

"I've been out of touch with Richard for four years, including disappearing for an entire year and then I suddenly, with no warning show up here and muscle my way into his…and Bruce's home. And that I happen to know Bruce's most guarded secret without him wanting me to know makes all this kind of awkward." Alfred knows this conversation; he's had similar ones with both Richard and Tim during their first weeks living in Wayne Manor.

"You worry that he may find you unworthy of knowing?"

"I do, actually was surprised he didn't insist on having me put in a medically induced coma or something." She replies. "I knew it was going to come back to hit me one day, but neither me nor Richard knew how to break it to him."

"You misunderstand Master Bruce, his identity is valuable to him, but it is not something he guards with his life. He always expects people to figure it out at some point, one way or another, always has since he adopted Master Richard. It is a safety precation."

"Did he expect Richard to slip up?" Raven asks, not quite believing Bruce could be that untrusting.

"Not at all, Master Richard was always trying to be better than Master Bruce and that he would be even less willing to let it slip because of that. But Master Bruce figured it would only be a matter of time before Master Richard had to reveal himself to you, his friends, and you would have worked it out from there and that he would just have to accept that you were considered trustworthy enough to know. It did surprise him a lot when he was told all of you only knew him as Robin."

"We figured he slept with the mask on." Raven remembers some of Beastboy's and Cyborg arguments about who was really hiding behind the mask, Starfire only wondered what color his eyes was, after she was told he was hiding them. "So with me showing up here was a blow to Richard more than it was to Bruce?"

"I don't believe so, during his descriptions of your team, he did mention on several occasions that you were the first one he would trust with it. I suppose you know why?"Alfred asks making Raven think in two directions, on one hand it is a small blow to her ego that it might not just be because she was a trusted friend and ally of his.

"I had and still have enough of my own secrets, if I told anyone about his, he would have a good reason looking into mine and speak of them."

"True enough, but that none of your friends ever came to Wayne Manor, before now when you were invited, have proven you capable of keeping it a secret."

"I guess that counts for something." Raven says before finishing off the last piece of bread. "Thank you for the breakfast Alfred. I see you made enough for two more." She says while noting the extra tray on the counter.

"Quite right, I assumed you had to wake your companions before the Arms had a chance to serve. Would you be so good to take it to them, after I get a sheet for your friend's car?"

"Bruce decided to keep you a secret for the time being?" Alfred just nods before walking out a door, returning a few moments later with a folded piece of bone white cloth. Raven in the meantime has pulled out the bag containing the books she borrowed; being able to leave stuff in other dimensions is handy.

"Did you get a chance to finish those?" Alfred asks looking at the books sticking out of the bag.

"Unfortunately no, but I hope to finish them later on if possible."

"Well I do hope you get a chance, neither of the Masters find much time to read anything longer than the newspapers. Unless an injury is involved, and you know how they become then."

"Wounded bears. Would you mind putting the books aside for me?" She asks while using her powers to lift the tray with food and slinging the cloth over her shoulder.

"Of course." Alfred says with a smile at the retreating Raven and levitating tray.


	10. Two minutes to Batman

It happens that Raven chooses just the right moment to return to the cave, Nightwing's tour had come to an end and the trio was just emerging from the stairs near the chemical lab.

"Ah man, you're a lifesaver Raven." Cyborg exclaims while taking in the tray, he is a bit disappointed there's no mound of bacon or waffles on it, but at least nothing looks like tofu and he's starving.

"Looks good Rae, did you make it?" Beastboy asks while lifting a salad leaf, apparently fearing there would be meat hiding under it. Raven decides it's best to lie right about now.

"I did Garfield, don't worry my cooking has improved." She assures, while noting she had to keep an eye on both of them in case they wanted a snack at some weird hour of the night. After the pair has eaten their breakfast, Nightwing lets them wander around, so their breakfast has a chance to be digested a bit before training can begin. Cyborg and Beastboy heads off to the spots they wanted a closer look at, the spare-car park and the trophy room. Nightwing takes the chance to have another chat with Raven, while warming himself up in the training room, a smaller cave within the main cave wall, near the bottom.

"So now that you've managed to get me into a very uncomfortable situation by playing Slade, could you tell me what happened on the ship? I have to say I wasn't expecting you'd do that to him."

"I looked into his mind and animated his fears." Raven replies flatly.

"I thought you said it hurt both you and him when you did that forcibly?"

"It did, but I timed it so Slade felt it when he thought one of the images hit him. It was why I passed out and woke up with a headache." Raven explains while he does a back flip.

"So you made hit and run attack on his mind while he was seeing something else?"

"Yes."

"So what does he fear?" He asks, hoping to find something to use against the man in case he returns.

"Well, he fears Batman out of reputation, and don't let it go to your head but he fears you one day becoming better than him."

"That's a goal to work towards, anything else?" He says while smiling slightly at that, Raven rolls her eyes at him.

"Well he fears me, my father and my father's vault guardian because he knows the truth about us."

"Was Trigon the one he feared would come for him?" Nightwing continues.

"You heard that?" She asks before dismissing the question. "No it's not my father he fears, he knows Trigon won't personally come after him, it would be beneath him and Slade's betrayal wouldn't warrant it. It's his guardian he fears."

"Don't remember any demons from that time, besides those fire ones and Trigon." Nightwing say while thinking back to those dark days.

"You didn't see him, but after I was turned into a child, it was him that left me in the church ruins you found me in, before heading back to the vault he normally guards. The Guardian is a grey skinned hulk in a man's shape; he's about 3 meters tall and 2 over the shoulders. He wears an eyeless iron helmet over his head and carries a glaive of a strange design, Slade carried it when he helped us fight Trigon. Slade had to get past him to get to his flesh and blood, and I think he unintentionally released my own powers as well when he did."

"Sounds like Bane to me; he can get those proportions when he uses his drug."

"I doubt Bane would win a punching match against him, I'm not sure if the Guardian was once a mortal or something else, but now he is a full blooded demon. But he is a lot more powerful than the ones you fought, Slade almost died, again, before he got what he was looking for."

"Slade didn't kill him?"

"He initially thought he did, but he only managed to knock him out. Slade fears that the Guardian will come for him to retrieve what he was set to guard." Nightwing remains quiet for a moment while stretching his legs.

"It was Slade we heard scream before we saw you two?"

"It was, deep down, behind the monster we know simply as Slade, there is a man named Slade Wilson. He once had a family, a family he put in danger because of his mercenary career. As you heard, his wife shot out his eye and the Slade we know was born that day and Wilson was buried deep within him. During his flight through the ship, more and more of Wilson came out, before he emerged completely. The last thing I made him see was Slade killing his family with his own hands, while saying he was doing himself a favor."

"You know that was kinda cruel Rae?" Nightwing finds it odd; he is defending a man he often dreamed about killing with his bare hands.

"It had to happen, for Slade the monster to die, Wilson the man had to see what he had become and what that meant. You disapprove?" She asks while raising an eyebrow.

"I should, but deep down I don't. I would be a hypocrite if I did, because I can't honestly say I wouldn't have done the same or worse to him if I was in your shoes. And neither will Batman, if I know him right. He's told me he has to fight it every time he has the Joker in his hands, it would be so easy for him to kill him and loose the body. But he wouldn't be able to face himself in the mirror if he did, even if he would be cheered at by Gotham while he still had the blood on his hands."

"And for that I admire him, he always seems to know what is the right thing to do, according to his own moral compass. Even if there's easier and more permanent ways to solve his problems." She admits.

"So you're hoping by getting his approval that you are not going down the wrong track?" Nightwing asks, knowing how often the old Raven was having doubts if she was a monster that should be hunted or a hero, she was never really sure what road she was on despite what she was doing. It was something Richard had wondered about a lot really, Raven had only had half a dozen slip ups for as long as he had known her and they got to see the monster that also lived within her. But still, despite all the good she had done, she still thought her birth ultimately doomed her to the dark path of a demon and evil with no chance of changing it.

"Well, it wouldn't harm if I someone besides my friends told me that." Raven admits with a small smile, Nightwing nods and decides it's time to begin.

"Guys, break time is over, get down here!" He yells. The pair shows up a moment later, Raven remembers something still slung over her shoulder. She tosses the cloth to Cyborg who looks at it questioningly.

"Umm thanks for the towel Rae, but I don't sweat this much?" He notes at the size of it.

"Actually that's for your car." Raven replies while pointing to a few bats hanging near the cave wall above them. Cyborg pales the instant he realizes what she means, before storming off to save his car. Nightwing and Raven count the seconds inwardly as he runs, reaching 21 when they hear a wail from above.

"Nooo! There's bat droppings on my baby!" Nightwing and Beastboy break down in a fit of giggles at the wails; even Raven lets on a smile. 5 minutes later Cyborg rejoins them, after having polished all the droppings off his car before covering it beneath the blanket. "Thanks Rae." He says halfheartedly before sitting down on a bench on the side line.

"You're welcome."

"Ok, now that we are all here. We will start out with you sparring against me one at a time. The cave is reinforced, so powers and weapons are allowed. The goal is to immobilize your opponent or 2 minutes passes, Beastboy you're up first."

"Great! I've got some moves I wanna try on you." Beastboy beams proudly, Cyborg and Raven inwardly roll their eyes like they would in the old days. Beastboy always talked a better fight during their training sessions in the Tower than he actually performed.

2 minutes later they are actually impressed, Beastboy has indeed learned some new tricks and avoided getting trapped by Nightwing. Of course turning into various bucking animals whenever he was close to losing didn't make him win either, but all things considered, they were impressed. And they do know he has the alternative option of turning into a rhinoceros or a hippopotamus, where Dick couldn't even move him.

"Nice moves Beastboy, Cyborg you're up next." Cyborg smiles broadly as he stands up and cracks his knuckles.

"Just because I haven't been superheroing all this time, doesn't mean I've grown soft." Cyborg warns as he steps onto the mat, Nightwing falling into a fighting stance.

One minute and 30 seconds later, Cyborg admits defeat after being blinded by Nightwing; it had been the plan for Nightwing to do that. He couldn't match Cyborg's strength or endurance and he wouldn't use an EMP charge since it could risk damaging something crucial. "Ok, ok, I admit I am a bit rusty." Cyborg jokes after, Nightwing administers a chemical that dissolves the hardened putty he had sprayed over Cyborg's eyes.

"Since I know there's no iron in your body, I doubt it. But well done." Nightwing replies while washing his gloves with some water from his bottle.

"I see you're already warmed up." Batman says, startling three of them. Raven had felt him since he arrived in the bat cave. He was now standing in the smaller cave's entrance.

"You back early." Nightwing says, annoyed that Batman once again managed to sneak up on him.

"Nothing at the office needed my direct attention today." The notion of Batman holding a day job makes Beastboy's head spin, imagining him wearing a normal suit over the cape and tights while very straight-faced advising a couple on their taxes. "Are you all done?"

"Actually, Raven hasn't gone a round with me yet. But since we were using powers. I doubt that we needed to see her toss me around like a rag doll."

"Raven is in the room, and tossing you around could prove quite amusing." She mentions, Nightwing notices a change coming over the man in front of him.

"Limits?" Batman asks.

"2 minutes or pinned, powers and weapons allowed like the old days." Nightwing states, Batman nods before moving around him, giving Batman a clear view of Raven.

"I hear you have been studying martial arts?" He asks.

"I have." She replies.

"Care to show me what you got? 2 minutes, no powers or weapons?" Out of the corner of both their eyes, they can see Cyborg and Beastboy mouthing and waving their hands in front of them 'No, don't do it!'

"Sure." Raven says, rising to the challenge, Cyborg and Beastboy freezes before internally plotting the fastest route to where the first aid kits can be found. Batman undoes his utility belt, leaving it on the bench.

The pair of fighters moves onto the mat, facing each other over the center. Bowing slightly to each other before they drop into a ready stance, mirroring each other as they lock eyes. Beastboy is holding his hands before his eyes, settling to watch through his fingers. He is worried that Raven is about to find out why none of all the kung-fu movies Beastboy watches are anything compared to the rumors he's heard about Batman. Nightwing is looking on, secretly excited that he is about to see what exactly Raven is capable of in this field while slightly peeved that he wasn't going to get the first chance to try it. Cyborg's mind is split between running to get the bandages or to start recording the event. Fortunately all of them he knows better than to say anything, even after the pair hasn't moved for 5 seconds. Cyborg starts recording.

Batman makes the first move after 7 seconds, a spinning high kick with his right foot, aimed for Ravens head. Her counter is stepping back, grabbing his ankle as it flies past her and then twisting it. The reply, Batman launches his left foot off the floor, spinning his entire body around along with Ravens twist, bringing her head into the path of his heel. She notices it too late to move out of the way, instead she instinctively rolls with the hit to her temple, letting go of Batman's ankle she follows the heel down to the floor before rolling on her back one time before standing up and turn around to face Batman again as 10 seconds pass.

Turning around she is met by the sight of Batman charging her with his right fist pulled back, aimed for another blow to her head. She reacts quickly in time to Batman beginning to extend his arm, she steps to his right, grabbing his wrist with her right hand she gives it a sharp pull towards herself and gives his right shoulder a good push with her left hand, sending him tumbling to the ground after a few misplaced steps. She follows up by running two steps after him before somersaulting, with her right leg extended and the left bent up under her body, she intends on landing her heel on his back. To the onlookers she looks like large blue buzz saw blade as her cloak is caught on her leg. By experience Batman knows an attack is coming, as he rolls to the side before Ravens food slams into the mat where his chest was. 15 seconds.

Coming to a halt, Batman pushes himself off the floor in time to see Raven turn to charge him; he decides to try a new tactic. He leaps from his position, his greater bulk allowing him to tackle Raven to the floor with the collision. Once on the ground he quickly traps her hands on her chest, while placing his feet on the ground on the side of her legs while putting most his weight on his knees next to her hips. "Yield." He says quietly.

"Not, yet:" Raven says defiantly, the sudden lurch warns Batman that Raven had gotten her feet onto the ground and was now carrying his weight on the back of her head as he loses contact with the ground, it lasts less than two seconds as Raven rolls to the side. The result is Batman still holding onto Raven's arms and with his legs pressed against her lower body and his back on the floor. Raven had used his weight to get herself into a standing position, pressing herself against him, making her lean forwards and him backwards. Batman thinks fast and let's go of her hands before shoving her away using both his arms and legs, sending her onto her back again. Batman follows up by jumping to his feet, avoiding stepping on his cape, before leaping at her again; Raven sees it coming this time. 30 seconds.

He intends to body slam her so he leaps at her with his arms extended in front of him, Raven curls her legs up to her chest and extends her hands, ready to catch the flying man. She catches his arms as planned and her legs catch his midsection, when his weight has forced them down as much as possible she extends them with enough force to send him flying over her as she still holds onto his wrists, causing him to land flat on his back. Raven lets go before getting to her feet and a short distance between her and Batman, who has also recovered. The two begin circling each other, not coming any closer they both use the time to study the others stance. Raven notes that Batman seems to be keeping his left leg taunt while his right is slightly bent forwards. Batman notes the same thing with Raven. The 45 seconds marker is reached as Raven makes a move.

She stands up straight letting her cloak hide her form; she lets on a mischievous half smile as she extends her left hand taunting Batman to attack her. Instead of falling for it, Batman relaxes his stance as well, hiding himself behind his cape like she does. They both stare at each other, while slowly moving into position, ending up where they started the match. Raven makes the first move, grabbing hold of her cape with her left hand she swings it up in front of him, blinding him from the kick she delivers with her left foot into his midsection, the unexpected kick knocks the wind out of him. Reflexes make him slam his right fist into the left side of her extended thigh, earning him a yelp from Raven. Nightwing winces, that hurt and Raven was now going to be at a major disadvantage if Bruce hit her correctly. Something that's underlined as she hobbles away from Batman to get a seconds breathing space before he regains himself. 55 seconds.

Batman charges before dropping to slide towards her, intending to sweep her feet away under her, she jumps aside to the left letting her right leg to the work, she lands a little ungainly before taking up a stance that lets her shield her wounded leg somewhat, as it is stretched out behind her letting her put most of her weight on her right foot. Batman walks up to her, coming in range he sends out a series of punches and kicks, most are parried, but the few that get through her guard hurt. Raven attempts a few counter punches but most are either absorbed by Batman's armor and muscles or countered. The clock ticks in at 1 minute and 55 seconds as Raven makes another counter punch with her left, Batman grabs it stopping it dead before twisting it to the forcing Raven onto the ground on her stomach with the arm raised high. Nightwing is oddly reminded of Ravens fight with Etrigan, before Batman gets down over her, grabbing her right arm putting it into the same position as the left, while sitting down on her lower back. Pushing her arms forward a little, Batman effectively forces Ravens head into the ground, just as the clock ticks in for 2 minutes. Batman holds the pose a second before letting go, letting Ravens arms flop onto the ground. Raven rolls onto her back as soon as he stands up, accepting the hand he offers her.

"Good fight." Is Batman's only comment, Nightwing could see he was a little winded after this and smiling a bit. To Nightwing it meant that, Raven was better than Batman had thought she was and that he was at least mildly impressed with what she was currently able to do. The two others are just staring with their eyes wide and jaws on the ground by the fact Raven actually went the full 2minutes with Batman in a powerless fist fight. Nightwing however suspects Bruce was more interested in seeing what she could do more than he was into defeating her.

"Good fight." Raven agrees while catching her breath, she was really winded, not having the same stamina as Batman and her ego felt a little bruised by the defeat. "Where did you learn to punch like that?" She asks while pointing to the reddening spot on her leg that was feeling like it was paralyzing part of her leg.

"I once trained my reflexes in total darkness, my opponent could see and he often delivered a kick like yours. Are you going to be ok with that?" He asks, noting the first hit she took is beginning to leak a little blood from the scrape it left, he had counted on her actually going down when he made that.

"I will just need a moment to collect my thoughts. How about you?" She counters.

"I learn from my injuries." He says, fortunately for him his armor underneath the costume had absorbed the most of the impacts normally he would have mentioned she didn't hit hard enough if she had been under his training, but a few was making themselves felt despite his armor, which told him she really did know where to hit. Raven bows at him and he mirrors it, signaling the end of the match.

Raven floats over to the bench while Batman heads for the mini fridge in the back of the room, taking out two bottles, tossing the spare one at Raven, who catches it with both hands. While Raven sits down and takes a sip of water, noticing the still staring duo in front of her while Nightwing wanders over to Batman.

"What?" She asks, in her usual tone, now that her breathing has come under control again. She only receives a bunch of grunts, cracks, gaps and a lot of waving arms and hands pointing at herself, the mat and Batman. "I took up martial arts after you left, in case I suddenly lost my other powers, there would be no end of people who'd like to see me if that happened." She explains, earning more stares from the pair.

"She's better than I thought." Batman says while Nightwing is walking over to him, before taking a mouthful of water.

"I was thinking the same thing, so are those two." He motions with his head at the pair with the flailing arms.

"Did you train her?"

"I gave her the basics while we lived in the Tower, she said she used my practice records to improve herself."

"I could tell, she moves like you some of the time, but she's learned from someone else as well."

"She did mention she visited the same True Master I visited a few years ago, but she only said she learned some meditation techniques there."

"She fought her way up the mountain?" Batman asks before taking another swing.

"Apparently, even if it was unnecessary. I suppose she learned something from the encounters."

"Chu-Hui asked why she didn't just fly up I take it?"

"Chu-Hui?" Nightwing asks, not recognizing the name.

"It's her name, or at least the name I was told to seek out, it was a long time ago and she didn't have guardians back then."

"You do get around." Nightwing says with a smile, it isn't often Batman lets on who had trained him. As Nightwing had found out, part of the training with some these masters was to actually find them. Batman gives a nod before calling everyone together, after seeing Ravens bruises fade away to nothing through a blue glow.

"We have some recon to do, I have managed to find a suitable warehouse for us to use, but there are very few maps that shows the Gotham sewers with any sort of accuracy. I want you three to come with me, so we can scout and map out the area." He says while pointing at the three men. "Raven it's time to go see if Jason will help us. Meet us back here in a matter of hours." Batman says while writing a small note for her; Jason's address. "Now we only have to get there, even in this town, driving my car around in broad daylight raises eye brows. We can hike through the tunnels…"

"Or we can take my car." Cyborg suggests, earning him a raised eyebrow from Batman he can't see. "I've installed a holographic projector in it so it looks like an ordinary car. Also I can modify the image to whatever I want." Cyborg explains proudly.

"Only problem is that you have to drive out of here." Batman says, shooting down the suggestion, Beastboy and Cyborg had been stuffed into the back of the Batmobile when they arrived at the cave last night, where they could hardly see anything.

"Na, you can have Raven drop us all off somewhere far from here. That's how we got it inside."

"Guess that's settled then." Nightwing notes as Batman doesn't argue. The group begins to make their way up to the car, Batman falls into step with Raven.

"You know where the trail begins?" He is referring to the forest trail the car would have to drive on to get to the cave from the main roads.

"Yes."

"Drop us off there."

"Ok, do you want me to get you back in?"

"We have no way of getting in touch."

"Nightwing can, if he puts his mind on it." Raven explains getting a nod.

The group makes it to the top platform; Cyborg notes that there is only one new bat dropping on the sheet covering his car. After he removes it the group gets inside, Cyborg in the driver's seat, Batman in the passenger seat, Nightwing behind him and Beastboy behind Cyborg. Receiving a nod from Batman to indicate they are ready, Raven's shadow expands before swallowing them all. During the journey, Batman takes notice of the void they pass through, empty dark and cold, just as Richard had noted it was, even through the cars frame and his suit.

Jason Blood's apartment.

After some searching and consulting a few subway maps from the shadows, Raven appears in the hallway outside Jason's front door. Flipping back her hood, she rings his doorbell, not really knowing what to expect on the other side. After a moment, she hears a latch being pulled before Jason opens the door, obviously he must feel safe here, but then again trying to rob this home could prove fatal.

"Good morning Raven, what can I do for you?" He greets pleasantly.

"Hello Jason, I am here as a matter of business, can I come in?" She asks, hoping he knew what she meant.

"Of course, would you like a cup of coffee?" He asks while moving out of the way; letting her enter. Raven is surprised at the sight; the man's home is a mix of styles, modern, medieval and ancient. But since the man is supposed to be between 600 and 800 years old, at the very least, it is to be expected. In the center is a couch group of three pieces around a white marble table, with a game of chess on it. At the end of the table is a large fire place, which is currently out. The windows have two sets of curtains, a white pair that looks hand knitted and a pair of heavy green ones. Only the white ones are breaking up the harsh morning light. The wood floor is mostly covered by a large red rug. Along the walls are a few busts and a medieval suit of armor along with a potted plant, two paintings of Jason himself from different time periods and a few bookcases. Raven notes that there are other things besides books in them, a glass ball and a human skull amongst other things. The room actually has a tall ceiling, enough for the staircase and the single door at its top.

"I would thank you. It's a nice place you have here." She admits.

"Thank you, it's not often people find it that way." Jason says while walking out into the adjoining kitchen. "Oh and don't mind the crystal ball." Ravens curiosity is instantly sparked and she walks over to take a closer look at the item. She is actually surprised to see what looks like a young boy in a Sunday suit from around the turn of the century, sitting on a chair looking glum, which isn't hard, considering he has black hair and skin that borders between white and blue. Noticing her staring at him he looks up.

"Would you mind terribly if you could get me out of here, that evil man trapped me in here while I was out having some fun." Raven only smiles at him.

"He tries to convince everyone of that." Jason says, emerging from the kitchen with two large cups of coffee.

"Who is he?" Raven asks.

"Klarion, by some called the Witch Boy. The incident he usually referrers to was when he separated me from Etrigan before taking control of him. Fortunately Batman was able to stop him. Don't pity him; he turned his parents into mice before feeding them to his cat familiar. You don't seem surprised at his state?" Jason notes.

"I have some experience with deceiving creatures trapped in places; I once found a book that turned out to be a prison."

"Ah, what was inside?"

"A dragon called Malchior, the book detailed his battle with a wizard called Rorek. They both ended up trapped in the book, Malchior pretended to be Rorek, who had since passed on, and managed to sweet talk me into letting him out." Raven explains, while sitting down across from Jason with the white pieces on the chess board on her side.

"Dragons are like that, what happened?"

"I put him back into the book. But he later found a way out tough; and I ended up killed him a year ago." She sighs.

"I see, I can feel you have used your healing magic recently?" Jason decides to change the subject when he can see the reluctance she has about speaking about it as he passes her a cup.

"I had a sparring match with Batman, no powers allowed, leaves its marks."

"Ah, well now that we have mentioned the Caped Crusader twice now. What brings you here?" He asks as they sit down at the table.

Raven begins telling the lengthy tale of how and why they needed the man with them. Her undercover mission for Batman at Black Mask, the encounter with Slade, Zatanna's untimely appearance and the reunion of the four Titans and what is coming.

"So right now Batman hopes you would help us here, to even out the odds. Assuming Etrigan won't come running after me again and that we can keep bloodshed to an absolute minimum."

"He's been nothing but grumpy since you met, but he seems to have grudgingly accepted that you are not an enemy, for the time being."

"Will he be able to fight besides me without leaping at me?"

"Depends if he finds the fight amusing enough."

"Will 30-50 warriors that can bench-press a bus be worth it you think?"

"You really should ask him, he claims he won't attack if he gets the chance to talk to you directly." This has Raven raise an eyebrow slightly.

"You will still be in there?"

"Of course, like Etrigan is in here now. But try not to break anything." Jason smiles before beginning his chant:

Change! Change, O form of man!

Release the might from fleshy mire!

Boil the blood in heart of fire!

Gone! Gone! The form of Man.

Rise! The Demon Etrigan!

Jason's body is consumed by fire before being replaced by the massive squat form of Etrigan sitting where Jason was a second ago.

"Raven." His only greeting besides a small nod.

"Etrigan." She replies with a nod of her own as he gets up.

"So why should I aid thee with this…mortal matter?" He asks while placing his hands on his back.

"Compensation for having your arm broken?" Raven asks, knowing that persuading Jason was one thing, persuading Etrigan was something else.

"And why should one such as I care if Gotham is torn apart by an invading army?" Etrigan asks while calmly walks over to stare at Klarion.

"You wouldn't, but you like to fight, that a big fight is coming is enough to get your interest to promise not to attack me right now." Raven reasons, getting an unseen smirk out of Etrigan while he licks his lips.

"Which is true, I shall assist you, but if this fight proves to be a disappointment I shall come for you again for my fill." He warns, Raven rolls her eyes behinds his back. "And for now, I shall even do battle on your terms."

"I had a feeling you would say that, but thank you Etrigan. Will you bring Jason back now?" Etrigan grumbles a bit before he shrinks back into Jason, strangely still wearing his clothes. "You didn't burn off your clothes this time?"

"That only happens when the chant is said by someone other than Etrigan, or if he is out of control; it is a delicate spell." He replies before retaking his seat.

"I see, so will you come with me when we have to go?"

"I will, this might get Etrigan to quiet down. You don't have to go return at once?"

"No the others are scouting out the intended battleground and shouldn't be back for a few hours. Care for a game of chess?" Raven asks, Jason smiles before agreeing, he didn't have many visitors that played.


	11. Sionis Showdown

Later, in the cave.

"So did you find a good place?" Raven asks the smelly ensemble of heroes seated at the table, noting inwardly that she was fortunate that she got to drink coffee, talk and play chess with Jason, the others got sewer patrol. Robin has joined the meeting in the cave, since his school is over for the day.

"Well, for one thing the place stinks." Beastboy says, stating the obvious, the others roll their eyes.

"There are extensive networks of tunnels down there; we have marked the following locations for our deployments." Cyborg's left hand is currently changed into a holographic projector, currently displaying a section of the sewers, for about a cubic kilometer. It's a virtual maze of tunnels from different periods of construction, some collapsed into each other and some going far deeper than others; getting lost in it would be easy. The spots Cyborg motions at with red dots are all reservoirs, Cyborg and Jason are given the largest of them, while team Sidekick and the Bat and Bird are stationed in smaller ones. "As you can see the good news is that the place is a maze with adequate places for us to use our way of fighting, the bad news is that the place is a maze and that we found tracks Batman says belongs to Killer Croc so in case we have to bail it can get dicy."

"We can expect the fight to draw his attention if he is in the area, but I couldn't tell how long ago the track was made." Batman explains.

"I think Waylon would do well to stay away." Robin states confidently.

"I doubt he knows what a tamaranian is." Nightwing says while imagining the reptile mans reaction when he finds out they are far stronger than he is.

"Croc has mutated since either of you last met him." Batman warns. "He's bigger than Bane now and he's got stuck on a diet of meat, human included. Jason?" Batman motions for Jason to speak, as he is raising his hand.

"If you wouldn't mind terribly, I do not know what a tamaranian is either other than the description given to me by Raven which only detailed their strength; I would like to know more if such information is available." To Beastboy and Cyborg, Jason's way of talking reminds them of their friend from Tamaran.

"Well the one we knew talked like you." Raven actually slaps her forehead, before Beastboy says something he would surely regret, before she starts explaining.

"Jason is talking like they did in the days of Camelot, but suffice to say; tamaranians are a humanoid warrior race with orange skin. Their society is built around their emotions, which enables them to fly by being happy to fly, having super strength by having boundless confidence and energy projection from hands and occasionally eyes by being angry. Since we are supposedly facing a platoon, I suspect we are going to deal with soldiers." Raven explains, ignoring the questioning look from the green changeling.

"Thank you." Jason says with a slight smile. "But if fighting styles are known, that would be helpful as well." Batman mouths a later to him, getting a nod.

"Um, sorry for asking this but; who are you? Batman has assigned us to be teamed together and I just wanna know who is having my back." Cyborg asks, him and Beastboy had only been formally introduced to Jason.

"I won't be the one down there with you, but my other self will." Jason says, dodging the question. Cyborg's questioning look makes him continue. "Have you heard of Etrigan?"

"Umm, can't say that I have."

"Think of him as Raven on a bad day." Cyborg nods, thinking of the form Raven took when they took down Dr. Light the first time.

"So, you're a half demon as well?" Beastboy asks.

"No, I am the host of a pure blood one. But fear not you will see him in time." Jason assures with a mysterious smile on his face.

"Back on topic, after Nightwing gets whatever number of hostiles into the sewer. Cyborg detonates the building above, cutting them off from immediate reinforcements and escape. Raven will whisker Nightwing away as soon as he is out of sight. After that, the go will be given. We will be having radio silence unless dire help is needed. If Croc or anything else is encountered, deal with them. Jason if you can talk to Etrigan to keep casualties to a minimum, it would be preferred. Other than that, watch each other's backs." Batman instructs the group; Nightwing and Robin groan inwardly, they were going to hear this numerous times before the event.

The rest of the day goes by with training with Batman who was adamant about knowing who he was fighting alongside with, reading up on Croc and what else that could be encountered in the sewers, and talking. Raven was faced with a barrage of questions from her two former teammates, they wanted to know everything; why she knew martial arts, where she had been and how her days in the Tower had gone. Beastboy was somehow disappointed about the fact she still hadn't become a vegetarian and Cyborg nearly dropped his jaw when she told him that when she wasn't busy with something else, she had been trying to construct her own car, after finding some of Cyborg's blueprints that had been left behind, but it had been a slow process.

Cyborg talked tech with Batman, compared their cars and receiving and giving a few pointers and ideas along the way. Personally Cyborg thought Jason was a basket case, he had a hard time believing Etrigan was a completely different person from Jason. Added that Jason said Etrigan could see and hear what he did, only added to Cyborg's suspicions. Raven reminded him that he would be fighting side by side with Etrigan and that it was best to stay on his good side, which made Cyborg keep this to himself.

Beastboy went about the cave, finding a likely mind with the new Robin, they both loved jokes and pranks. And Robin was able to teach him a few moves in favor for some information on his favorite animals. Beastboy also took time to watch his idol, train with some of the others, before Cyborg threw him into the arena. In which he promptly got trounced, but he received a few pointers afterwards, like he shouldn't let his enemy blind him just by standing still.

Jason spends his time by reading up on Croc and tamaranians, and talking briefly with the others in the cave, mostly limiting himself to answering some questions about himself and Etrigan, and others he just dodged or flatly refused to answer. The exceptions was Batman and Raven, Batman because they were old friends and that his questions were mostly in the professional field or about antiques, a hobby that they shared, though Jason was the expert and Bruce couldn't always say what he knew about the items he sometimes put on display. Once he even had to brush a question off with saying he didn't even know he had these items. With Raven it was more a case of finally meeting someone on the right side of the law that could say they truly knew demons. Something he normally couldn't say about his colleagues in the League, Dr. Fate and Zatanna knew their stuff, but they only knew demons from the outside, like himself, Raven knew them from the inside. In a way it was like having an obscure hobby you thought you were alone with, only to suddenly bump into someone with the same passion.

When not chatting with the cave visitors, as the clan members call the four, the clan goes about its usual routine while in the cave by training, researching and thinking up how best to use the area they were going to fight in. Nightwing had a little extra job of trying to imitate Slade better, something Cyborg said he just needed to get into the mood he always went into when Slade was in Jump. Nightwing just growled at the man, reminding it was like if Cyborg had to pretend to be Gizmo. Robin tried numerous time to sneak up on Raven for no other reason than she was a woman, and that he wanted to test if the fabled 'Ice Queen's' awareness really was as sharp as Nightwing claimed, she caught him every time before he got within 5m of her.

Batman spends much of his time casually observing the people in his cave and how they interact with each other and his two protégée's, while keeping a careful eye out for anyone acting suspicious. Taking note that Jason and Raven were getting along really well, he guesses that it was their common problems that connected them. On the subject of Raven, he was agreeing with Nightwing that despite her bumpy entrance in Gotham, she hadn't given him a reason not to trust her, yet. She had done all he asked of her, even something she admitted she hated and had great difficulty doing for a prolonged period of time. He was however a little worried about how the encounter with Zatanna had played out, but given Raven's past history with her and the fact Zatanna almost killed her when they met again, he couldn't say Raven's actions were unjustified, they were however an indicator of how much the Leagues rejection of her had weighted down on her over the years. Finally he had warned Zee about staying away from her before the encounter. Right now he was only concerned about what Zatanna has told the League, he knew she had disappeared out of the Gotham Memorial with only a note saying the League had her, but so far he had heard nothing from them. He sighs knowing he would have to deal with them after the immediate danger posed by Blackfire has been dealt with.

By now Batman has only one test left for Raven, the ultimate one; if she could make the right decision under difficult circumstances. He was fairly sure she would, but he needed to be sure she could handle it. However it is a test that will have to wait till the situation appears as it can't be manufactured. He was beginning to wonder what would happen if or rather when he gave her the green light to work here, would she merge into Gotham's shadows to fight her own hidden battles alone? Taking on the threats of Gotham that even he barely knew existed as a regular human. Would she only appear next to him or the others and offer her assistance if needed by either side? Or would she accept an offer he had been considering; staying at Wayne Manor as a member of the 'clan' with all that it implied? He knows Alfred already likes her a lot; they are both quiet people, enjoy their tea, reading and they are both proficient at spreading sarcasm and dry humor. Also the old man was pleased to have a member of the opposite sex present since it somewhat muted the usual 'boys-club' antics Richard and Tim could get into during their free time. Richard is of course pleased to have his old friend around again but Bruce isn't sure if that will last, tearful reunions only last so long. Tim is between impressed and pleased to have new subject he could try his pranks out on, something Raven is dealing with admirably, but considering she has years of experience with Beastboy, Tim is climbing a steep hill to get on her nerves, which Beastboy appears to be able to do without effort. Actually Bruce is fairly certain she is enjoying the attention it brings that someone is trying.

He has his own more practical reasons for wanting to make the offer, the humanitarian one is that she doesn't have anywhere to go except the streets, but that is a minor problem he can easily cure for her. Practically he knows she is powerful and he'd rather prefer knowing where that power was when working in his city. But unlike Zatanna or most of the other superhuman he knows, Raven doesn't actually seem to rely on having them, not completely, unlike Zatanna and Fate. Her time with Roman it seemed that she actually just maintained a disguise and a certain attitude and that did most of her work for her, proving what Richard had long speculated, she could act a part to a convincing degree. She was driven to achieve her goals and the small camera in the park he had been using to spy on her without her knowledge had revealed that she had certain routines that always were kept, and that the books she borrowed were either hastily read or she was barely into the second chapter of the first as most of her remaining free time was spent reading a re-reading the extensive database of Gothams criminals, even a few that had only appeared once or twice. In regards to the housing problem he could discreetly set her up with a home somewhere in the city, but for the time being, keeping her close is the preferred option for a number of reasons.

There is only one person he needs to consult before offering Raven the option is Barbara Gordon the former Batgirl. He had only toyed with the idea of offering Raven the mantle of Batgirl, mainly as a stand in for whatever alias she would chose if made a member. But he knows enough to tell she won't take something like that up if he offered it out of the blue, she is her own person, if she liked it or not, and jumping into someone else's uniform would make her someone else, which seems to be against what she believes. And from Richard he knows she would probably beat herself up a lot to live up to the name and responsibility Barbara had created for herself. Ultimately however, the mantle of Batgirl it is not his to grant, that is a right only Barbara has. And he owes it to Barbara to let her know about changes to the team, so she won't feel sidelined and because she deserves to be told rather than suddenly find a new approved body on her grid. He was certain she knew the Shadow was in the city, but he had been quick to keep the mention of Raven out of the computers and the activity from the park cave was something she couldn't see, which was why he let Raven borrow it, communication to and from it would be seen by Barbara as a transmission from the League.

But yet there are still things he needs to know about Raven; what are her powers now and how far do they actually reach, he knows she is an empath and a telekinetic, but he don't know how far either of those things reach, can she sense Alfred tending to the flowers in the far end of the garden while she is down here for example, how much can she actually lift with her mind, was she limited to throwing cars about as Richard has said she could do with ease, or could she send the USS Gotham floating into space? He has pretty much grasped how her teleportation worked; if she could see where she was going with her mind's eye then she could teleport to it, but he wants details, like how she avoids materializing inside objects in the location and what was it she passed through when travelling? There are a number of other abilities he wants to know more about, those abilities of little mention or rarely shown, like the healing, mind reading and shape shifting that Richard had noted down over the years with her. Also he wants to know the extent of her magical capabilities, he isn't sure if she has used any of it while here, but according to Richard she knows magic to an uncertain degree. He decides that he will have to talk to her later tonight or tomorrow, after patrols and Roman is caught.

Taking note of the time, Bruce wonders what Alfred is cooking up. Since his old friend is banned from the cave as long as Beastboy and Cyborg are here they've all missed lunch. Excusing himself from the cave, he walks up the stairs to find out.

"Master Bruce! Have you been swimming in the sewers again?!" Alfred exclaims as Bruce walks into the kitchen, having forgotten that none of the people that went into the sewer had actually bothered to clean up after coming back because they had gotten used to the smell. His personal odor aside, his mouth starts to water as he smells Alfred's latest culinary masterpiece, a very large roast beef, with lots of different vegetables and brown sauce. It isn't exactly athlete's food, but if Alfred can put his foot down, he will make something other than sandwiches, sadly that has meant some meals have gone to waste over the years when an emergency suddenly appeared.

"Smells good Alfred." Bruce says, ignoring Alfred's barb.

"I do believe, the Gotham sewer is best left under the streets." Alfred replies pulling a face, knowing well that his employer was talking about his creation.

"I do Alfred…" Bruce suddenly gets a whiff of the sewers he was carrying around, taking on an annoyed expression.

"Good, I would insist you at least go clean up before walking into the kitchen next time." Alfred says while smiling slightly. "And do remind others of similar odor to do the same, dinner will be ready in about half an hour Sir, will you be dining at the conference table?"

"Thanks for reminding me Alfred, yes we will." Bruce decided it wouldn't hurt having Alfred bring it down. "Would you bring it down to us?" Batman asks

"Of course Master Bruce." Alfred replies happy he's allowed back in the cave; having visitors he couldn't attend to was a strange sensation, while Bruce is turning around to walk out of the kitchen. Alfred can hear his employer talking to his adoptive sons as he walks down the hallway.

"Robin, Nightwing; get upstairs and take a shower. Tell Beastboy and Cyborg they can use the one in the cave. Yes I know he doesn't, but we have to bear with him, besides his powers seemed to keep his suit dry. Well let's hope he doesn't rust."

Two hours later after a shower, a round of staring and an amazing dinner that left Cyborg hoping for more, the heroes gathered together again, preparing to go oversee the apprehension of Black Mask. Jason had requested that he be allowed to return home, Etrigan was not one to let out because of a 'common gangster', Raven dropped him off after letting the T-car, with Cyborg, Beastboy and Nightwing in it, out at the entry point to the northern freeway. Raven waited a few moments on top of one of the warehouses surrounding the building Black Mask operates from, before noting the rest of the team comes up behind her.

"Looks like he's not going to go quietly." Raven mentions not breaking of her gaze from the scene below that stated the obvious; the building is surrounded by the police and their cars. Unfortunately they were all exchanging gunfire with the men inside. Batman sighs; he had hoped it wouldn't come to this and that Roman would just have been loudly complaining over the police searching his building before they found his stash or better yet have been caught off guard.

"Try and see if any of you can spot a man in a brown trench coat with grey hair and glasses." Better than most, Batman knows how corrupt Gotham's police are, for every undercover agent the police had in the gangs there were two crooked cops taking the gangs money while in uniform in exchange for favors.

"That's him behind the S.W.A.T. van over there?" Cyborg asks seeing a man matching the description speaking into a microphone, apparently trying directing the events.

"Wait here." Batman says before shooting a grappling hook over to the roof of the building next to the man, allowing him to approach the man without letting the mobsters know he was there. "Rough night Jim?" Jim Gordon sighs at the voice.

"Someone tipped Roman off, but whatever he's got in there is important, he's defending it with tooth and nail obviously. We haven't seen any sign of your insider or that reported monster he's got employed."

"Don't worry about that." Batman says while grappling up the building again while Jim is looking away. Jim turns around again to reply only to see nothing in the space next to him.

"I'm never gonna get used to that." He sighs.

"Someone tipped him off." Nightwing states when Batman silently climbs back onto the roof.

"Yes, but Mask is still inside, apparently guarding something. Anything you know about Raven?"

"I wasn't given a tour, and I didn't have access to all the floors." She replies. "But he could be putting his heels in for the sake of it." Batman nods at this, Roman was like that and he wasn't so sane that he wouldn't do this if caught in a bad mood.

"Hmm, Cyborg, can your armor stand up to the fire coming from the building?"

"Sure man, they would need something a lot bigger than the firearms they are currently sporting to get through it. And before you ask, I have an inbuilt helmet for my head." Cyborg beams proudly.

"Good, you and Beastboy go help the police get in, the man in charge is Commissioner Jim Gordon, tell him I sent you. Nightwing and Robin are with me, we go in thought the roof. Raven, I spotted a few wounded officers down there by the ambulance, go tend to them, you can join the assault afterwards." If anyone was looking into Ravens eyes when the command was given, you might be able to see a small disappointment creep into them, but she is not going to argue, lives could be on the line after all and she had sensed the pains of the wounded before he mentioned it. After brief acknowledgements the teams split up, the clan grappling up to the roof of Mask's building. Raven engulfing herself and the remaining Titans, letting them out in the alleyway Batman had used to sneak up on Gordon. Cyborg takes charge like he did back in the days, when Robin was absent.

"Commissioner Gordon?" Cyborg asks, startling the man first by his voice, the man spins around taking on a confused look when he sees the half-man and the green skinned man, almost missing the cloaked woman behind them.

"I'm in the middle of something, can this wait?" The commissioner asks, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"We know, we are here to help, Batman sent us." Beastboy intervenes, the commissioner quirks an eyebrow look at the pair; they don't look like ones Batman would normally enlist.

"Unless you're bulletproof, I am afraid there is not much you can do." Cyborg gives the man a slight smile, before parts of his armor seems to extend covering most of his vulnerable spots, like his head. He now looks like a complete robot, the normally human right side of his head now covered by a thick plate of metal with a grill covering his mouth and a hole for his eye.

"I am now, Beastboy will hitch a ride with me, Raven back here will need to see you're wounded. Batman is working his way down from the roof of the building." A sudden realization hits Jim as to who these people are, as well as the idea.

"Ok, the wounded are back there." He says while waving his hand at the back of the line of police cars, a few ambulances can be seen at the back. "The S.W.A.T. team is currently over there; let them know it's time to push inside, Sergeant Mills is in command." The trio nods before heading off to their locations, Cyborg and Beastboy finds the team in an alleyway crouching over a drawing of the building, arguing over how to get inside.

"Sergeant Mills?" Cyborg asks the group of 10 masked and black-and blue clad men in bulletproof vests, helmets and goggles, not seeing anything that denoted ranks on their uniforms.

"That's me, who are you?" The man in question asks.

"I'm Cyborg, the green guy is Beastboy. Commissioner says we are to help you guys get inside."

"Good luck with that, they are dug in good in there."

"Don't worry, I've got a few tricks in my sleeve's." Cyborg says while unfolding his cannons. "I will make sure they keep their heads down, Beastboy will take care of the door, sounds good?" Cyborg asks the Sergeant.

"Ok, I hope you know what you two are doing. But we will be right behind you." Cyborg nods at the man before turning; Beastboy transforms himself into a fly then gets himself comfortable on Cyborg's back.

"Ok, going." Cyborg says before strolling into the fire zone between the police line and the building, taking note where the gangsters are leaning out of the windows. Cyborg notes there are four barricaded windows in the ground floor and five in the floors above them, currently all of them are barricaded with furniture and wood planks, all of them have some sort of firearm poking out of them, most of them directed at him. All of the projectiles ricochet off Cyborg armored hide harmlessly, he stands still for a few seconds letting his targeting systems find the weak spots in the barricades.

"Ready B?" Cyborg asks as more of a signal for Beastboy to be ready. Waiting a second, two slits in Cyborg's upper back opens, two small cannons extend themselves over his shoulder. "GO!" He yells to his green friends as his four cannons starts shooting at four different targets, before switching his aim firing again at four new targets, the shooting stops immediately from the building as the barricades are blown inwards.

Beastboy flies free from his cover, flying as fast as he can before he morphs into a rhino aiming straight for the door, the SWAT team emerges from their cover, storming over the killing field following the green rhino. Beastboy collides with the door with enough force to bend the metal reinforcing it before taking the door, its frame and some of the outer wall with him through the opening into the lobby. In the dust cloud that follows, he changes into a fly again before anyone in the lobby can think about shooting at him.

Raven hears the sound of Cyborg's cannons firing as she finds the paramedics and the wounded, taking cover in the alleyway that has kept them safe. She can tell with a glance that two of the 5 wounded were in dire need of help if they wanted to see tomorrow. Without asking she walks over to an unconscious man with a bullet wound in his stomach and shoulder, the paramedics had done what they could from here, but he will die from internal damage if he doesn't get extensive help soon. Right now he is lying bare-chested as they had to check his injuries. Raven kneels down next to him, with blue glow surrounding her hand.

"What do you think you're doing?!" A dark skinned female paramedic with a mask covering her face asks sternly, grabbing hold of Ravens wrist. Apparently thinking Raven was the sort of vulture, she sometimes had to kick out of the hospital for taking too much of an interest in the wounded.

"The man is bleeding internally; the bullets are still inside of him. He will die without my help." Raven says flatly. "Don't worry, I have done this before." She adds, tugging her wrist free of the other woman's grasp.

The paramedic is about to protest, but Raven quickly places her still blue glowing hand on the man's chest, working quickly, the paramedics protests die on her lips as she sees first one, then two bullets work their way out of the wounds they made, more blood follows the bullets out before the wounds close and turn a slight pink; it was like watching the natural healing process, only speed up to compress weeks into seconds. Raven gets up to face the wide eyed paramedic.

"He will be sore when he wakes up, and he still has a few fractured ribs in his back and spine, but he will live." She says while moving onto the next man, a male paramedic is struggling with a wound in his neck, he had been shot through the artery, he will die shortly if they can't stop the bleeding. "Move your finger out of the wound, slowly as you feel the tissue begin to tickle." Raven says to the man before placing her hand on the opposite side of the wounded neck. He just stares at her before noticing that his thumb is beginning to tickle, at which he slowly pulled it out. The healing process repeated itself as it had on the other man, leaving fresh pink skin on his wound.

Raven is now being stared at by the two paramedics and the three conscious wounded, one with a bandage around his left thigh, a S.W.A.T. member with a wound in his shoulder, the last had a broken arm. They are all sitting next to each other, leaning their backs against the wall. Fortunately the one with the leg is in the middle, with the arm man on his left and the shoulder wounded on the right.

"If you can move together, I can help you quicker." The three instantly shuffle closer to each other, practically leaning on each other. Raven surrounds her hands with blue energy before offering them to the men who grab hold of them with all of theirs; that being four since two had theirs in a sling. The blue energy creeps from Raven into the hands holding onto her, disappearing after a moment after which she lets go. "You will still need a cast for the arms I am afraid, but the tissue around the breaks are clean now." She says to the one with the arm, the others were getting up flexing their previously wounded areas, nothing that the wounds were still a little sore but otherwise gone.

"Who…who are you?" The paramedic whose finger she had relieved from the neck wound asks.

"Me? I'm no one really." Raven says before levitating off the ground and into the air heading for the mob held building.

"We are going to be out of a job." The female paramedic says to her colleague staring after the blue cloaked woman.

Meanwhile, the Bat-clan has encountered a booby trapped roof that slowed them down considerably, for them. They heard Cyborg's attack a minute before they got inside the building without triggering anything, like the mines, guns and the bomb on the door. Moving in total silence they know they have to keep quiet, they made a quick recon of the top floor, finding it completely abandoned. After a round of wordless communication, they split up. Robin found an air duct he could crawl into, Nightwing took the stairs down, while Batman took to rappelling down the side of the building. The three know Roman is their primary objective, he directs all of the lesser thugs and if they take him out, they would soon lose the fight in them. Unfortunately for them, they encounter several setbacks.

Batman has to crash through a window on the 13th floor, after getting spotted by a thug smoking in a vacant room. The noise brought in seven more; it took Batman precious moments to clear them out. Nightwing encountered a similar problem, Black Mask had apparently ordered the stairs guarded, something Nightwing found out when he almost collided with the door that was swung open on the 12th floor, and again the noise of the ensuring fight brought more mobsters into the fight. Robin ends up cursing his luck in the air duct he is stuck in on the 10th, half of the S.W.A.T. team had made it up there and were now in a fire fight with a team of dug in gangsters, and Robin is stuck in the duct passing over the battling parties. He has to stay put as he sees several holes passing thought the metal, he couldn't go back as he had just dropped down from the level above, and there was no room to move other than forwards.

Meanwhile Cyborg stalks the lower floors, using his thermal scanners; he can easily see where the bad guys are hiding. The remains of the S.W.A.T. team are behind him, settling with covering his flanks. Cyborg occasionally fires his cannons into a room where someone is waiting and sometimes he punches his way through the more flimsy plaster walls to get to the ones hiding on the other side.

Beastboy on the other hand is moving around the building as various small and unnoticeable animals, whenever he finds a lone man he pounces on them either as a venomous reptile or insect, or the few cases he found a pair of thugs he would smack their heads together while he was a gorilla. Before splitting up from Cyborg he had been warned not to do anything stupid, like trying to attack people as a tiger or bear. Garfield knows well enough that even his largest shapes are not bulletproof, and bullets tend to stay in those large bodies.

Raven, coming in late, wastes no time in locating Roman on 7th floor in his office. She can sense Batman has resumed his scaling of the outer walls, he would be at this floor shortly, but she can't tell which side he is on in the chaos of emotions around her. She can however sense Richard's thoughts as he plows through a large number of goons that thought they can overwhelm him in close combat. And she can sense Tim's anxiety from being cooped up in the duct waiting for one side or the other of the firefight to win. Cyborg is making his way up to the 4th floor with the S.W.A.T. team on his tail and Beastboy is spying out the 5th. Noticing a lull in the combat between Nightwing and the goon squad she sends a message.

"_Richard, I have located Roman, he's in his office on the 7__th__ floor."_

"_Good we will meet you there; Batman is already on his way."_

"_You might want to help Tim out on the 10__th__."_ The line grows silent after that, she didn't know if he was preoccupied or just worried.

Sighing she folds herself into her cape before floating through the floors unseen, appearing in the room outside Romans office.

Staying invisible she notes that the secretary's desk and the other furniture have been used to make an improvised barricade. Four False Facers are taking cover behind it, facing the elevator with semi-automatics in their hands. It is a deathtrap to come out of the elevator now. Raven can sense Batman's determination coming closer, guessing he is two or three floors above her. Taking a peek through the walls into Romans office she, sees the bodyguards preparing their weapons, like they were making a final stand. Black Mask himself is pacing around the room, clearly agitated. Sighing she phases out of the room, appearing again a floor above on the outside of the building.

"How's it looking on the inside?" Batman's voice sounds from above her, it slightly startles her that he is this close and noticed her that fast.

"He's got seven large bodyguards with firearms in the room with him, and four in the room besides it carrying semi-automatics." She explains, wondering what the Caped Crusader is thinking of.

"Good, you deal with the four, I will deal with Roman. When you done with them, try and come and save him, I will throw a small flare at you, pretend it hurts and get out." Raven nods at him before sinking into the wall again.

Settling with watching the men in the room till Batman makes his entrance, Raven has a bright idea, oddly reminded of a certain former apprentice to Slade. Hearing the sounds of splintering glass, curses and gunfire, Raven makes her move on the guards outside who are distracted. Encasing the mobster's weapons in her energy she bends the barrels out of shape before hammering the weapons into their holder's heads, they all drop down unconscious. Noting only one voice is cursing on the other side of the door, Raven tears the doors from their hinges appearing in her Shadow guise. "Drop him, Bat-freak!" She roars at the sight of Black being held off the ground, his guards already out cold while she advances.

"Catch." Batman replies as he hurls Roman at her as the chairs begin to move on their own.

"Oph!" Shadow growls as Roman passes through her, there is an instant where she sees a small black ball flying towards her before in explodes in a flash."HHHRRRAAAA!" She roars in her blindness before storming towards the direction she remembers there window was in and falls out of it, pushing Batman back on the way out before she disappears in the night sky.

Nightwing and Robin emerge out of the door in the back of the room, having come down the stairs. Both seem slightly disappointed that they missed the last fight as Batman kicks Roman's last gun out of his hand before he can bring it to bear on him.

"Floors above are clear." Nightwing says, falling back into his role. "Only one officer was wounded, but it's not bad." A 'ding' sounds from the elevator before the door opens, revealing Cyborg and the S.W.A.T. team taking cover behind him. Seeing Roman on the floor they all point their weapons at him.

"Fine, you got me." Roman growls in resignation.

Clearing the barricade, Nightwing makes his way over to Cyborg who was standing idly while the S.W.A.T. begin dragging away the unconscious thugs away while two were dragging Roman away.

"Rae got in on the action too?" Cyborg asks quietly, getting a nod. "Gordon knows she's here." He says quietly having noticed the shift in the older man when they spoke.

"Gordon is good at keeping tight about such subjects." Nightwing assures him.

The team splits up after a few words with Batman, Cyborg would go find Beastboy and leave by the front door the rest would leave by other means, preferring to stay out of sight as always. While moving across the rooftops Nightwing tries to communicate with Raven.

"_Raven?"_

"_What?" _Her reply is somewhat grumpy.

"_Nothing, just wondering if you were all right?"_ The ensuring silence almost makes him believe she won't answer.

"_I'm fine, just a little blinded still, that's all."_

"_Alibi for the Shadow?"_

"_Yeah, though I guess I won't be seeing Roman anytime soon after that performance."_ She replies.

"_Good thing about the mob and this city is that it always gives you second chances."_ Nightwing sends cheerily.

"_Very funny." _She replies with sarcasm oozing.


	12. Filling in the Blanks

After grunting his satisfaction Batman had the former Titans head back to the cave, minus Nightwing. Unlike the Titans and the Doom Patrol, that where reactionary forces that moved out when crimes were reported to them, Batman and his boys actively sought out their fights. And night patrols had not been anything on the three's menu for years. So the car emerges out of the shadows of the cave, and the two occupants get out.

"Cyborg, cloth." Raven mentions as she materializes next to the duo, Cyborg immediately heads for the trunk and gets out the white sheet Raven had thrown at him, before covering his baby with it.

"Thanks Rae." He says, making his way over to the two. Raven taking up the seat to the computer, Beastboy is leaning against the small desk with the forensic lab.

"Wonder if that can run Ultra Monkeys 6?" Beastboy asks out loud, motioning at the supercomputer.

"Gar you'd probably need a degree to get past its logon screen." Raven says flatly.

"Not while I have Cy." He smiles at his big friend, who just eyes him.

"Oh, no! I'm not touching that without permission." He says while holding up his hands and backing away, actually he really wanted to see what the fabled piece of machinery could do but receiving a full system shutdown was not in his immediate plans for the future. Beastboy looks like deflated balloon; instead he spots the staircase behind Cyborg, re-sparking his curiosity.

"So what do you think is up there?"

"Batman's house." Raven says matter-of-factly, since Alfred had come back down to the cave, she guesses it was no longer an option to hide what was up there, but that didn't mean she couldn't warn them. "But think of it as my room, same rules apply, no one goes in without approval of the owner."

"So can we go see your 'room'?" Beastboy asks with a huge grin on his face.

"No." Raven shoots the question down, before continuing. "Remember what happened the last time you went into my room without permission."

"He he, yeah…" He still vividly remembers that day he spent running for his life, leaving much of the Tower's interior in ruins.

"You know, I never found out what you actually wanted in there?" Raven asks, she remembers walking into her room, only to find him standing inside, he managed to get out before she realized it, after that the chase began, looking back she realizes how easy it had been to goad her to anger with that little action, she hadn't even considered that Beastboy had a genuine reason or not, however slim that chance was, it was just easier to assume he was up to something.

"Umm, Cy dared me to…" Beastboy admits while pushing his index fingers against each other and looking at the ground. Cyborg is trying to imitate a tortoise, his head lowering more and more into his chest, while still too embarrassed to move. He had been lucky Beastboy never got the chance to tell on him that day or the next.

"Is that right Victor?" Raven asks her voice still calm and monotone as she leans back in her seat, secretly she is finding it quite amusing seeing them like this, it reminds her of the old days.

"Umm, yeah, but he dared me to eat his tofu." Raven just shakes her head at the pair.

"So did you?" She asks, knowing how much the metal man hated the stuff, and would loudly complain over it when forced or tricked into eating it.

"No, I spat it out as soon as he wasn't looking." Cyborg admits receiving a glare from Beastboy. And soon the pair are back in the old argument, Raven resigns herself to later remove the sheet covering Cyborg's car as payback, Robin hadn't been too happy about the wreckage she had created during the chase.

The clan returns home much later that night, finding the cave quiet. Nightwing notes that the cloth that is supposed to cover Cyborg's car is lying beside it, a lot of droppings are now on the once sparkling car. Beastboy and Cyborg were both sleeping in the beds offered them near the bottom of the cave, mainly because it was possible to prevent them from waking up from the roar of engines due to the constant noise of the river. They find Raven again hanging off the ceiling near the manor entrance, with her boots on the floor beneath her. She actually awakens as they look at her for a moment, still not used to it.

"Good you're back." She says before yawning and sliding down, disturbing only two bats this time.

"Did you not like the room Alfred made for you?" Batman asks, concerned that his employee was not doing his job and he had mentioned there would be a room waiting for her when she got back.

"I'm sure it would be very comfy, but there's a pair of kids down here who's very interested to see how you are living." She says while nodding at the roof. "I thought it was best if I kept watch over them since they are more or less prone to go snooping places they aren't supposed to."

"Did they try?" Robin asks.

"About three hours ago." Raven replies as she notes the time on the computer screen.

_Flashback_

"Come on, coast is clear." Beastboy says while waving his hand for Cyborg to follow him up to the top platforms, after seeing no one there. Cyborg groans behind him.

"How did I let you talk me into this?"

"Because you want to find out how Batman lives, just like me. Wonder if he's rich, he's got a butler?" Beastboy speculates as the pair makes their way towards the staircase.

"Well duh! You didn't think all this stuff just grew out of the ground?" Cyborg rolls his eye at his green friend who has stopped walking, standing before the staircase with something akin to awe in his eyes.

"One small step for Beastboy, one giant leap for tofu." He says making a moment out of putting his right foot on the first step, getting a quiet sigh out of Victor.

"And one step closer to an early grave." Ravens quiet voice makes them both spin around. "Up here." Cyborg pops his flashlight and begins to scan the area he thought he heard her voice coming from. Spotting first the blue fabric of her cloak, and then lowers the light to see the rest of her. The pair just stares at her.

"Rae…how…what…?" Beastboy begins.

"I thought I needed to keep an eye on you two, and I slept like this most of my absent year. Now get back to bed."

"Dude, she's a vampire, we need garlic." Beastboy whispers to Cy.

"I'm not a vampire, and I do like the garlic Alfred puts in the salad, now march."

_Flashback ends._

"I had to convince them I wasn't a vampire though." She says while putting on her second boot.

"And I was hoping to be there when they saw that." Nightwing says while sounding disappointed.

"Thank you for keeping an eye out Raven, could I have that word with you in private now that you are up?" Batman asks, receiving slightly raised eyebrows from Robin and Nightwing.

"Sure." Raven replies. She follows Batman down to the meeting platform; he pushes a few buttons on a console where his seat is, letting a bubble like substance appear around the edges of the platform, sealing it off from the rest of the cave.

"It's a sound proof barrier, so whatever we say in here, stays in here." Batman explains while sitting down, motioning for her to take a seat as well. Raven sits down on the far side of the table from him. Once seated, Batman begins by being straight forward. "You know Richard kept files on all of you?"

"He had files on everyone he interacted with, including our mailman, usually they were very detailed." Raven admits, she had helped with a few of them, like Malchior's and Trigon's. "I would not be surprised that he also had files on his friends."

"You know what they were for?" He asks.

"They were for future reference in case he found himself opposing the ones in the files; he even had one on himself in case something got to him if I remember correctly." Like Slade she adds internally, Batman pushes a few keys letting a 3D sheet appear over the center of the table demonstrating that Cyborg isn't the only one with that kind of projector. If Raven is annoyed by seeing her name on top of the sheet, she gives nothing away only notes that it's not overly detailed, actually it was lacking in comparison to some of the files she had seen Richard make.

"Yours is the most empty of all of the Titan files, and this one has not been updated in, well, years."

"You'd like to know exactly what I can do and what my strengths and weakness' are." Raven states flatly, noting that Batman is at least not going behind her back about it.

"Yes. The file will remain in the cave until a time when I fail to stall an inbuilt failsafe, were the files will be deleted automatically. But they might be released to the League if a situation warrants it." Raven thinks for a moment, she can keep quiet, like she has always done. For the safety and acceptance of her friends, she kept quiet about who and what she really was and what she had been born to do. But she figures Batman has his own way of finding stuff like this out, like how he knew so much about Wilson before even meeting him. It might of course be wise to open up, considering who and what she is, to have someone knowing what to do if she one day lost it.

"You might miss your meeting hour if we are going to do this in one session. You want the back story as well?" She warns, Batman only gives her a slight nod for her to begin. "I was born Raven of Azerath, my mother was called Angela Roth on Earth and born again, figuratively, as Arella on Azerath, my father is the interdimensional demon known as Trigon the Terrible."

"My mother was one of the homeless in Gotham when she was lured into a sect that worshipped Trigon as a divine savior with the promise of shelter and night she willingly offered herself to him as his wife, as their faith proclaimed, she would bear Trigon's prodigal child who would ensure his arrival and the coming of a new Eden for his followers. Trigon revealed his true form to her before I was conceived. After he was done with her, Trigon cast my mother back to Earth while burning the sect and its members to the ground. My mother fled that night knowing she was carrying the devils child, walking the streets of Gotham for weeks, attempting several suicides before being contacted by the nation of Azerath."

"They were long time opponents of Trigon and knew my mother carried his child. My mother then became Arella as she was welcomed to their world, the new name was meant to hide her and me from Trigon. Nine months later, I was born. They say the skies were torn with violent storms for weeks after my birth, but they faded before I became aware of them. From the first day I can remember, I was trained to never show emotions, never to rage, never to cry, laugh or feel joy myself. It was all suppressed in fear of my father taking hold of me. Of course when I was young, I often strayed from my teachings and I was…punished for doing so. When I became older, I began to wonder why none of the other children I saw were like me or were treated like I was. The few times I approached some, they either called me names because of my appearance or were quickly scooped up by their parents or minders who proceeded to quietly scold me for leaving my important studies."

"For the first 7 years of my life, I had virtually no contact with my mother; her feelings towards me were deemed an unnecessary risk, so instead I was raised by the monks of Azar. Azar was our leader and virtual deity to the people of Azerath, and she took over my training when I turned 7. She taught me greater control of my powers and how to use them for good, like when she asked me to heal wounded animals. But it was also her that told me who I was and why I was special, I realized then that at my birth there was both a prophecy and a decree. I learned I was, on the anniversary of my birth destined to one day help my father taker over the world of mortals. I learned it was decreed the day I was born that no one in Azerath was allowed to display any emotion towards me or in my presence. I realized when Azar told me about it that they had failed all of the civilians and many of the monks displayed one thing towards me; fear. And perhaps they simply didn't know that I could already at that age feel the emotions of others far from my sights." Raven stares at the table for a few seconds before continuing unhappily reminded of the day when her world collapsed.

"My time with Azar was too short, her life was spent at an age of over 200 years, I was 10 when she passed away with no successor. After this my mother was entrusted to complete my training, something she had been prepared for in the time when I was growing up, by then I didn't even know her as a relative, she was just another teacher to me. After Azar's passing I began having dreams and visions where I was confronted by my father, he warned me that his time was coming. I argued with my mother and the monks about how to prevent this; I leaned that day that they had been trying, in their way. Azerath was a place build on pacifism, the only way they could act against Trigon's unending lust for destruction, was to do nothing but curb his 'gem' and pray it would be enough, but that I was arguing with them showed them that it had not been enough. I told them I couldn't believe they would do nothing more and they scolded me, saying that they were disappointed that I still, after years of training by them, still harbored the violent nature of my father, as they called it."

"I left Azerath that night at the age of 14, remembering the few stories my mother was allowed to tell me about Earth, usually that it was a savage place were violence was commonplace, and exaggerated as I found out, a breeding ground of evil. But my mother also told me that there were people here who went out of their ways to help and fight for others, sometimes resulting in their own injuries or death. I wanted to find these people and I hoped they would help me in my quest, as you know, that's how I met the League. After I was denied there, I went to Jump City as you asked me to, the only city that seemed to be without any superheroes, where by a strange quirk of fate, I found Robin and the other Titans. The rest should be in the files already." Batman finishes typing, he was mildly shocked, Richard had told him Raven's story was like a bad horror movie, but without going into any details about it, he had said it was a promise he had been made to keep in his head and out of the files.

"What was your training like?" Batman asks.

"Medieval, is the best ways to describe it, one of the first things I mastered was to suppress the feelings of pain and anger, because they were the most dangerous ones. They used that as a reset button for all the others, whenever I became happy or anything they would simply hit me till I was back in line when I was younger, a few times they hit too hard and I passed out." She says remembering the only injuries she was allowed to heal on anything other than animals, were her own, back then she was pretty sure it was because she was some sort of animal herself. Batman was thinking down the same lines, if you hit a dog with a rolled up newspaper enough, then it wouldn't disobey. "But despite having my childhood taken away by them, I am still thankful this day of how their training worked out, even if I wish it will never happen to anyone else." Batman quirks an eyebrow at this, suddenly wondering if Raven might have been damaged mentally by her upbringing before reminding himself that she was damage, but not in the way he was thinking.

"Why?"

"We are alive aren't we?" She shrugs.

"There wasn't an alternative?" He asks.

"Only if I ceased to be physically or mentally. I know it was a bad upbringing, but it happened and there's nothing to do about that now." She says flatly, but Batman can tell she is moved by having the memories dug up he decides to move on from the unhappy subject, her absent year could wait.

"So what abilities do you have?"

"As you know, I am primarily known for being an empath; basically it means I can sense the emotions of others. Over the years I have been able to expand the range and precision of it through training and natural growth, so now I can pinpoint the dominant emotions of a single person in a tight crowd of up to 40 people. After that they begin to blur each other out if they stand too close, this is also how I know when someone is behind me or otherwise out of my field of vision around here. It's a bit like you can feel a source of different temperature in the dark."

"How far does it reach?"

"I can pinpoint emotions at their sources about a kilometer away in every direction from me without difficulty, unless someone is displaying an heightened emotion where it is increased to some 2,5 km. That's at least the greatest range I have felt something at. But my teachers on Azerath and my mother warned me that I would be able to sense the entire Earth if I do not suppressed my empathy to the degree I do…they warned me that I could never hope to come out sane from such an experience. And I believed them after they caught me testing it out on the 350.000 citizens of Azerath, I could barely handle it and Azar had to step in and close the door, so to speak. And these were all tranquil minds; the minds here aren't structured the same way. It might be different today because of the time I've spent here on Earth, but so far I haven't dared trying it again."

"It will be useful considering Tamaranians are depending on theirs for their powers to work." Batman notes, before motioning for her to continue as she nods. "Richard has speculated that your healing abilities are a part of the empathy?"

"It is; when I employ it, I draw the pains of others into myself before I expel them later on through meditation, the reaction is that the body begins rapidly healing. I have a number of limitations on it; I can't cure diseases because I can't draw out the viruses and bacteria. Also, since I draw the pains into me, I end up feeling them as if they were my own and because of that, I can't heal fatal wounds…unless I risk dying as well, that's what I have been told at least of what would happen, as I have never been asked to heal to that extent. Also because of the amount of trauma usually involved in the cause, I can't completely heal broken bones, I can save them a good few weeks of bandages and casts, but anymore than that and it becomes harder for me to do. But besides empathy, I am a telekinetic, meaning I can move objects with my thoughts by temporarily placing a piece of my soul in it. If I use this on a living being I can bridge with them on a telepathic level, meaning I can read their minds and we share memories if allowed, but merging like that can harm both me and the other person unless they accept my presence. It is also my telekinesis that allows me to fly."

"So how did you toss Slade around on your birthday? And why is it Richard never received your memories like you did his?"

"Slade was without a soul at the time, part of it was being held by Trigon, so I couldn't bridge with him, usually if I have to catch people or something like that, I animate their clothes. Robin was under a lot of stress at the time and I am constantly guarding my own thoughts, as I said my father usually tried to get inside my head when I was younger and with my powers rooted there, I wouldn't put it past him attempting to trigger them."

"Is there a connection between the empathy and the other powers you have?" He continues.

"There is; the more I feel, the more power I can unleash. I suspect it was a sort of deliberate boon from my father to make sure I joined up with him when the time was right. The balance I keep is delicate, balancing my own feelings is one thing, but then I have to shut out everyone else's on top of it. Richard may have mentioned it, but I also run the risk of going fully demonic if I feel too much, which is why I always have to be careful. If I could draw on everything however with no risks…I don't know really." She sighs as Batman types it down while he thinks about just how powerful the young woman across from him really was.

"Do you still fight Trigons presence?" Batman asks, somewhat timidly.

"I am not sure if it really his him, or just his ghost I imagine there, but I shut it out all the same. He's not one to give sound advice. It may also be the demonic side of me that is trying to get control of me, and that I won't allow, not even a foothold."

"Do you know how much your telekinetic powers can move?" Raven remains silent for a moment before answering.

"Truthfully I don't know, the greatest mass I have ever moved with it, was two 10 story buildings I made to move together. It was on my birthday and I was running from Slade, I was stressed and unfocused, sadly, that didn't stop him from branding me." Batman quirks yet another eyebrow at this, prompting her to explain. "For me to become Trigons portal, certain marks had to be placed on me. Slade was quite pleased with that particular assignment."

"You managed a lot of things back then, are still able to do them?" He continues.

"I stopped time at one point, had absolute command over Trigon's army as long as I obeyed him and I undid all the damage he did. I don't know if I can do any of them again, but I am pretty sure the remaking of the planet was a onetime thing triggered by my interaction with my father, I figure was using his power to do it, but I'm not sure."

"Add to it you obliterated a being that destroyed the planet." He notes as it dawns on him that she did that in a world where there were only a handful of people left.

"Batman, I am not totally sure about the things I did that day, I am not even sure what happened to him. If he is truly dead or imprisoned somewhere and just biding his time, I honestly can't say. As he always said, he claimed to be the source of all evil, if he is really dead why is there evil still in this world?" She expects some kind of reaction from Batman, angry or upset, she can't account for one of the most powerful beings in existence.

"Evil doesn't stem from a single source Raven, it comes from choice and point of perspective. One may see one man's actions as evil, another may see them as good. Trigon may have claimed to be where all the bad choices came from, but he also said you could do nothing against him moments before you annihilated him. I would take what he said as boasting to fuel his own ego and cow the listener."

"We hope I did." Raven underlines. "Anyways I am also capable of altering my appearance and voice, it was a small trick I know my father left me in case I needed to hide, I can push it to a certain degree but it is not on the level I hear the Manhunter posses. I have to roughly maintain my own size and it's mostly visual camouflage, like I can look like I'm made of rock, but I won't feel like it if touched. Trigon went into a lot of trouble to make sure I survived to do his bidding. When I was with the Titans, I only used it rarely, either when asked to scare someone or when I wanted people to get away from me."

"Was that what Richard saw the night you fought Etrigan?" As asks as Raven slowly gets up, and begins to stare out of the transparent barrier behind her. "Raven?" Batman asks softly.

"Batman, can you promise me you won't tell the other about this yet?" She asks quietly. "I am not ready to let them know."

"I won't." He says after a few seconds and removes his hands from the keyboard.

"The battle with Malchior had a price for me beyond rendering me homeless; the dragon cast a curse on me during the fight, forcing me to be reversed in appearance. I am not who I was anymore, what you see now is an illusion, were once you saw the cage. He forced me to become demonic in appearance instead of human. He could only cast such a spell because I am a half breed, before a demon in human disguise now a human inside the demon." Raven slowly turns around to face the man behind her, while her other form slowly appears, but Batman appears neither surprised nor alarmed at the sight of her.

"So this is your true self? How you really look?" He asks.

"It is, it took me half a year to be able to appear as you've seen me now as the curse also locked my shape shifting powers down. This change was also a reason why I fled Jump City, they were already displeased with me, the destruction of the city and my appearance would have them chase me out."

"So is all you have shown us all an illusion?" He asks.

"No, this is a full transformation; the difference is that I have to fight to look human." She says a little agitated before changing back. "I have noticed that I have increased physical capabilities when I am in my other form, how much I don't know, but it was enough to handle Etrigan. I suppose I could say it much like him, only when I transform, the mind remains the same."

"You never sought out Dr. Fate to help with it?"

"Word would have gotten back to the League and they will come knocking." The mention of the League prompts Batman to remember something.

"Zatanna has disappeared from the hospital you left her at, I assume she's gone to the League." Raven sighs deeply, knowing what this meant, before sitting down.

"Yippee, like we didn't have a pending invasion to deal with." She says while burying her head in her hands. "Look I will understand that I can't be here anymore if the League starts hunting for me, I won't let myself become a wedge between you and them."

"Zatanna went against my orders of leaving you alone, bringing the League in is only building on that, and they **know** Gotham is off limits to them unless I call them in or a dire crisis is involved." He states matter-of-factly.

"A dire crisis consisting of a demon apparently brainwashing the world's greatest detective, his two protégé's and two former Titans. Zatanna knows that some demons can employ that kind of mental control. But I have never tried anything like that."

"So technically you could be manipulating me and the others to think well of you through you empathic powers." Batman speculates out loud.

"I cannot say anything that would dispel your worry of that, unless you have dampeners to block me and besides I give my word that I am not, and even that is not worth much when coming from a half demon." Raven admits looking down at the table, knowing she was giving him every reason to call the League himself.

"I have faith in that you are not. So is there anything else?" He asks, Raven can feel the sincerity coming from his first statement, which is slightly comforting. "And how did you regain the shapeshifting?"

"Well when I first met Malchior and agreed to help him out, in return he taught me everything he knew in the field of magic, building on the small amount I was taught on Azerath. In this world it is called dark magic, sometimes chaos magic depending on who you ask, I didn't know what it was until I tried to use it, I almost killed a child when I realized I had no real control over it. I haven't really used it since." She replies. "My appearance was one of the reasons I travelled, to find a cure for it, which isn't easy when you think the League is still after you. But as it was I was…found, I guess you could say, by the Phantom Stranger who helped me for his own reasons."

"I won't claim to be an expert in the field of magic, but is control of it simply beyond you?" Batman asks as he mentally puts a note regarding the Stranger who never appeared anywhere without there being a greater purpose.

"I don't know if it is to me, but after the dragon I have not had any training in it, I have the knowledge but not the skill to wield it unless guided. I can tell you that chaos magic is amongst the most powerful of the schools of magic, but the problem is that the spells quickly becomes very complex when you want to use it for anything other than destruction. Like if I want to blow up a car with it, I only have to wave my hand and the proper focus, but I need to recite half a page worth of words if I want to turn on the light. Also I have been told I have a very good memory and I think I can still remember all the books the dragon taught me. A final mention of him because he also taught me how to absorb information from a hard medium like books or sheets of paper, I have learned since I can also do it to information banks in computers with a little modification. As you know I have been training myself in some forms of martial arts but I don't know at what level I am at. Finally there's my Soul-self; a manifestation of my soul that I can use for a variety of purposes, like teleportation. I can walk between dimensions in this fashion or between points in one, but it becomes harder with range and it is not instantaneous, basically I have to see the point I have to go to before moving. It works differently if I move between dimensions and within one, perhaps easiest to understand if you imagine two pieces of paper, each representing a dimension." She explains and Batman finishes typing to follow her example. "If I am standing point A in one dimension and I move to another, if I don't focus on a certain place within the other dimension I will end up in at point A in the second dimension. That's the easy part because to me the distance feels short. If I have to move a distance, call it point B in either, however I begin to feel the strain eventually." She finishes and remains quiet before realizing he though there was more. "That's all I know I can do."

"Then we are done here for tonight." Batman says, he would have to get the other information at a later date, while saving the document and disengaging the bubble. "Get some rest, we will need it tomorrow." Is the last thing he says to her before walking away, leaving Raven to stare at the table, feeling elated that he had not kicked her out, crushed at having explained her whole miserable story thought I had been kind of nice to let someone know it and somehow positive at that.

* * *

**Authors notes: **Just so you know I am aware of how extreme the comic version of Azerath was in regards to it's beliefs on violence, and that what I have written here is pretty 'far out' in comparison to it. But I have been wondering a lot about how exactly they managed it otherwise given how children are prone to rebellion and disobedience, so this is just my take on it. And just so we are clear; I do **not** approve of it in any way or form.

Also, just for those who think I may have overburdened her, all of those powers have been on the show at one time or another. Shapeshifting however was only seen when she scared the swearing out of Gizmo in the Crash episode (for those who haven't seen it; after he refuses to help she pulls back her hood revealing some monster underneath that's only seen by its shadows).

Anyways, filler issue; rate and review :D

Next: Sewers and Tamaranians


	13. Battle in the Dark

The day comes fast for the group of heroes, who spends the first part by sleeping in, not wanting a tired mind or body to be the cause of any injuries during the coming fight. When they did awaken, it was to a grand breakfast Alfred had prepared for them, most of the day passes as the one before, with training and small talk. Cyborg wailed when he found his car, he secretly suspected Beastboy of pulling a vicious prank on him, more or less trying to refuse to believe someone else would have done it. Raven managed to find time for some needed meditation after last night's talk with Batman; it felt oddly calming that at least he knew the truth, in another way it felt like it was a betrayal that she had told him and none of her friends. During the afternoon Jason arrives at the manor under his own power, an old brown Cadillac he had grown fond of some years ago. Before the team were to make the final preparations, Alfred made a suitable meal for a group of people who were about to go make an extraordinary physical effort, meaning nothing too heavy was served. The team is now only waiting for Nightwing to come down in his disguise, it is now 17:30 and the sun is slowly setting outside the cave.

"You'd think he was a girl when he's taking this long." Beastboy says to Cyborg while leaning on the still cloth covered T-car the eyes Raven sends him go unnoticed.

"You would take this long if you were asked to wear a fur coat." Nightwing grumbles while walking down the stairs in a replica of Slade's metal and black combat suit, he was cradling the helmet in the crook of his arm, he does not look happy. "Let's get this over with."

The assembled heroes gather around Raven on the car platform, they had agreed to leave the cars at home since their targets would be airborne, so leaving the easily recognizable vehicles was a risk of blowing their cover. They are all dressed in their usual costumes, besides Jason who is wearing a blue pair of pants, brown tweed jacket over a black shirt and a pair of green rubber boots that comes almost up to his knees. He had said; that if everything with Etrigan didn't go all helter-skelter, he didn't want to ruin his usual leather shoes by walking through the sewers in them; Beastboy cringed a little at the mention. At a nod from Batman, Raven casts her cloak and shadow wide, swallowing the group before they disappear from the cave, appearing only a moment later in the designated warehouse.

Leaving the sour Nightwing on the surface with a flare gun, the rest climb into the sewer through the access in the floor. The warehouse, as Nightwing saw it, was nothing more than a temporary shelter for goods unloaded from the ships, it has no doors and the walls are only a thin layer of folded aluminum bolted onto the steel beams making up the buildings skeleton, all of whom are sporting explosive charges.

Beastboy is glad that the dinner was sufficiently light, as the sewer's smell had not improved since their last visit. His mood is not improved when he notices Jason's water proof boots and Raven floating gently over the stream the rest of them are walking in, he fights down the juvenile urge to kick up some muck onto her cape. The rest of the group appears unbothered by the smell. The teams split up at a crossroad leading three different directions from the one they come from, leaving Beastboy there after he accurately repeats the directions he has to go to get to the other's initial locations.

Robin heads down the left tunnel and is in place after a few moments of running, only waiting for Nightwing to show up. Cyborg and Jason take a little longer getting to theirs as their tunnel was longer and has a section where the roof had fallen in, leaving them to navigate the pile of bricks and dirt. But to their relief, their chamber is mostly dry sand deposits, except from a small stream passing between two of the pipes. Batman and Raven take the longest of all, but their tunnel is very deep at one point and Batman, stubbornly declining aid, slowed them down somewhat, but it was also the longest and the most twisted. Raven decided to follow Batman as a shadow, after proclaiming she would not be lowering her bare legs into the sewer waters if she could avoid it. But at last they arrived at their chamber, and Raven noted why Batman wanted this one, it had several rafters spanning across the open cylindrical space above them that ends in a light of some kind. Now they could do nothing but wait.

Nightwing feels like he has been staring at the mask in front of him for an eternity, wondering why it had held so much power over him in the past and how much it still affects him. Somewhere in his head he pities Slade Wilson in his new existence as a loon in Arkham. Another is glad the man is finally in some kind of detention. And another is jubilant it is because of one of the people he tormented so long that finally saw him incarcerated. The last part is enraged that it was not because of him and his work to make it so. The line of thoughts brings him onto the subject of Raven, his long lost and now found friend. Again his mind is divided, one part wanted her to do much more to him, another is terrified at what she did and that he's wanted her to go further and lastly there is the angry part that whishes she would have merely detained him long enough so he himself could take him down. This leads to him wondering who really had the claim on Slade's head; who really had the right to bring him down. Was it himself? Terra? Beastboy? Or Raven? Thinking back he realizes something, Slade left him clues yet evaded him. He wanted a willing apprentice, yet he threatened Richards friends to get one. Nightwing has the small epiphany that he was at least 3rd in line for a piece of Slade. He corrupted Terra and took away her free will in the end before they both died, in a sense. Slade hunted Raven personally; grinded away at her sanity, branded her, haunted her in her sleep, constantly making her doubt herself resulting in her believing there was no hope for herself only her friends, Slade and Trigon made Raven kill herself. Nightwing realizes all of his old anger at Slade was not really at the man himself, it was at his own inability to be better than him. Nightwing sighs at the realization it was his pride and stubbornness that fed his anger back then.

"_Maybe it really went down as it should have."_ He thinks.

"_There are plenty of bad guys for you out there Richard."_ Ravens thoughts enter his head.

"_Sorry, I was just wondering about Slade…how long have you been listening?"_

"_Only since your reiterated what Slade did to me. Bruce wants you to try now, he worries that you were staring too much at that mask."_

"_Bruce, worried?"_

"_Actually he just said you stared too much at it, but that's his display of worry as I see it. Now go shoot, this place stinks." _She says with a slight mirth in her voice.

"_Thanks for revealing all the joys of the place I am not in yet."_ He says while smiling to himself, knowing Raven's eyes are rolling around in her head.

Nightwing gets up and stares at the mask for a moment longer before putting it on. Calmly he walks out of the warehouse into the open area in front of it, the warehouse had enough distance to the other warehouses next to it to drive two trucks between them, in front of Nightwing there is an open space of almost 50m before one could jump off the dock and into the Gotham Bay.

"Showtime." Slade's voice says the lines Richards's father always said to him and his mother before entering the tent to make their nightly appearance as the Flying Grayson's. Raising the flare gun high, he shoots the bright red flare into the Gotham night sky. He can now only wait and expect a response from the stars.

He waits for 5 minutes before he sees the first shapes moving in from above him over the bay waters, he notes that they are keeping close to the surface, no doubt to avoid being spotted by radars. He remains motionless while watching the approaching group slowly go from black specs to barely defined humanoids, till finally he can see them clearly as they hover just within the lights flooding the area he is standing in. Some 30 female Tamaranians, all with orange skin and long red hair. Nightwing note they all **look **like Starfire, but none of them are her or at least none of them looks just like Starfire as he remembers her. It's the fierce looks they are giving him that gives their alien origins away, Star would have attacked him on sight in his current getup. Actually the red hair makes him wonder if Blackfire is an oddity on her own world, since her hair is black, another part quickly wonders if this was some kind of psychological angle Blackfire was playing by pitting him against people that look like Starfire? But he dismisses it, Blackfire may be more subtle than her sister, but not to this degree, it would be beneath her as a ruler. The sourest looking of the group floats down to him, to hover just a meter from him, obviously keeping herself hovering so he has to look up at her.

"Where is he?" She asks in fluent English.

"Robin is being detained down below." He replies calmly motioning with his hand toward the warehouse behind him. "If you ladies would care to follow me?" Nightwing turns around and begins to walk calmly towards the building.

"_Raven, get ready I'm luring them in."_ He thinks towards to the friend he is depending on.

Sigh, "I'm gonna have to spend hours getting all of this stuff out." Cyborg complains while shaking his foot in the air, noticing the drops of greenish liquid coming out of his ankle joins.

"That assumes we make it through." Jason says while sitting on a rock and drawing pictures in the sand with a stick he found. Cyborg looks at him with a strangle look.

"Hey I am the one that's got the risk here. According to both Batman and Raven, this Etrigan you're keeping inside is no push over, I don't know about his durability, but I am not sure my armor is not up for a fistfight with a group of angry Tamaranians." Cyborg replies with an annoyed tone.

"May I ask how you ended up this way?" Jason asks, deciding to change the subject.

"Had an accident that claimed my mother and most of my body, my father saved me by rebuilding me into this." Cyborg explains while waving down himself. "You? I hear you aren't like Rae, that you weren't born this way." Jason gives him a slight smile; it was a fair question to answer since he asked a similar one.

"I was cursed by Merlin, King Arthur's trusted advisor and wizard, because I opened the gates of Camelot to its enemies, as a penance I carry him within me." He says while looking at the ground.

"Something tells me you are dead serious about this?" Cyborg asks, receiving a nod from Jason. "So were you a knight of the round table?" Jason gives a chuckle.

"Alas I was not so noble. Maybe if I had been, then I would have earned my peace at the proper time. If you know of him, I was under the command of Sir Bors, and I served him honorably, until I was swayed by Morgan le Fay." Jason's features harden at the mention of the sorceress.

"Must be pretty silly for you to see how they are portrayed these days?" Cyborg sits down on the rock next to Jason.

"Mostly I don't amuse myself with movies or television, but I did find Monthy Phython's comedy amusing when I saw it once at a fellow's home." They share a low chuckle, remembering some of the ridiculous scenes from the old movie, until Cyborg hears the sound of static in his ear.

"_Cyborg, blow it."_ Batman's gravelly voice commands.

"Bouya!" Cyborg exclaims loudly as the crump of distant explosions are heard.

"You are really gonna jump on one of them?" Raven asks as she watches Batman getting comfortable on the second rafter from the ground.

"No, I am going to grab the last one and pull it up here, I've prepared a powerful sedative that should do the trick if Nightwing's medical files are accurate, which I trust they are." He replies while leaning up against the wall.

"You know I could have a few brick's hit whoever comes this way." Raven says while hovering slightly off the ground.

"Sounds of battle or other noises could draw too many in here for us to handle effectively. That's what Etrigan and Cyborg are for. Besides, picking them off one by one will make future questioning easier."

"Ah-ha, makes sense from your point of view." She say's unintentionally underlining she didn't really fear the Tamaranians as Cyborg and the other Titans did.

"You think you could take them all on directly?" Batman asks while eyeing her.

"I don't know, as I have only used the other form twice in combat. But I bet I would make them fight for it." Raven states calmly.

"_Raven, get ready I'm luring them in." _Richards voice cuts through her thoughts

"Nightwing is bringing them in." She says to her companion, while readying herself to quickly move Richard out of the way. Batman nods at her, raising his hand to his cowl, ready to call Cyborg.

"_Now Rae!"_ Raven disappears instantly at the thought; Batman opens the com-link.

"Cyborg, blow it." His command is answered a second later by light shower of loose gravel from the walls, now he can only wait.

Nightwing doesn't quite believe the commander of the group brought most of her force with them into the sewer; she left only left 5 on the surface to guard the entrance. He spots the marks on the walls that signal he is coming up on the tunnel intersection. The commander behind him decides to speak up, floating above water as they are.

"I demand to know where he is human!" Apparently the few minutes she's been in the tunnel has not improved her disposition. Nightwing knows its time, her turns around to face her.

"Around, but don't expect to find him without me." He warns. _"Now Rae!"_ Two seconds passes before his vision grows dark, the last he hears is Tamaranian curses and the sound of explosives, before emerging in the 'empty' chamber Robin is in. He quickly takes off Slades mask and slaps on his own, before he scans the ceiling, spotting Robin waving at him from a hole in the wall near it.

"He's with Robin, I made a few sounds to throw them off." She whispers to Batman, floating up next to him. He makes a cutting motion at his throat, signaling her to keep quiet. He begins to move his hands in sign language.

"Good, we wait here for 5 minutes before we move out." Raven reads it with a little difficulty, having only learned and practiced it during the week she spent with Joey. Having been a mute most of his life it made his speaking thoughts very hard to understand, to Raven he might have sounded I like a deaf.

"Ok, I will be up there." She signs then points to the rafter above them, before floating up and attaches herself upside down to it. Wrapped in her cloak, she looks like a large sack hanging there, while Batman is a dark spot near the walls.

The Tamaranian commander is furious; the human called Slade had betrayed them and then disappeared in black smoke. The sounds of the tunnel are too distorted for her to tell which tunnel he disappeared down into and they needed him, the Empress would not tolerate they came back empty-handed. She takes the chance and splits up her soldiers, 10 was to go down the tunnel in front, 8 down the one to the right and 7 down the one to the left. It made the most sense to her and to the volume of the sounds she heard, roundly cursing the man, she orders them out, to find the one called Robin and bring back the head of Slade.

"Are all Tamaranians that loud?" Jason whispers as he and Cyborg hears the group approaching. They are grumbling and swearing in their own language.

"Pretty much, wanna see if we are louder?" Cyborg says while smiling at the man hiding behind the rock with him, unfolding his left cannon. Jason smiles at him.

"I will need a moment." Cyborg nods then stands up, looking down the tunnel, he is greeted by a 10 pairs of glowing eyes.

"Ch'ix?" One of them says, Cyborg smiles before raising his cannon.

"Hi there." He fires a shot at the central pair of eyes before running to the side, out of sight of any ranged retaliation.

"Fa'ko!" One of them yells, Cyborg can't tell if it was the same speaker as before, but he is pretty sure he got the drift.

"Change! Change, O form of man!  
Release the might from fleshy mire!  
Boil the blood in heart of fire!  
Gone! Gone! The form of man!  
Rise, the Demon Etrigan!"

Cyborg looks over at Jason when he chants; he is narrowly missed by a red energy blast, as he watches while Jason is consumed by fire. In Jason's stead, a squat and powerful form with yellow skin and webbed ears, dressed in a red leotard and a tattered black cape is Etrigan, ready to fight.

"So these are the ones from Tamaran, lets us see if thee are all that is promised!" With a roar Etrigan leaps forwards into the group emerging from the tunnel.

Somehow Beastboy is a happy guy right now, yes he is in a sewer, yes it smells awful and yes it is crawling with hostiles that can break him in half with their pinky fingers, but he is happy. He is living his childhood dream after all, on an important mission with Batman and with a special job to do. Actually he was given two sets of orders the one at the meeting, and an additional one during his brief one on one talk with the Batman himself. The other which he is about to do; "_in case you don't see them leaving anyone behind, head down and assist Nightwing and Robin they will need you the most"_. Of course he is not fighting directly besides the Dark Knight, but taking orders from him is just as good. Following after the group of Tamaranians in the shape of a wasp, he notices the amount of other buzzing insects that are bothering the group; he has an idea. Zooming closer he morphs into a regular fly, blending in with the rest, before landing on the neck armor the rear most alien before changing again, into a certain species of fuzzy caterpillar. Moving naturally like one he crawls onto his targets exposed shoulder; his touch makes her turn her head, receiving a light dose of urticating hair from him. She begins to cough and spit while Beastboy changes into a fly again and makes his escape. The hairs would do no real harm to her in such a low dose, but she would be coughing, have watery eyes for the next half hour and her skin would be sore the places the hairs were stuck. Pleased with himself, Beastboy zooms in to have another go.

As the group reaches the dome, where Beastboy knows Robin and Nightwing are, the group's members are either itchy, irritated, twitching or experiencing a little stiffness in their muscles, all thanks to Garfield Logan's intimate knowledge of venomous insects.

Cyborg is looking at two angry looking Tamaranians with glowing hands and eyes; Etrigan is busy with the other eight. Right after the business with Trigon, Cyborg would have felt doomed at the prospect of facing just one, considering how easy Starfire had taking his 'bad side' apart. But he has taken a few punches, and he is still mostly intact, thanks to the upgrades he's made over the years.

After Etrigans initial assault, Cyborg had been keeping the Tamaranians from crawling over him or sneak up behind him. After blasting two away from him, the one in charge had shouted something and the duo now facing him had gone for him specifically. Right now Cyborg feels like he is playing Clint Eastwood, in his nameless role in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, pointing a sonic cannon at each of his opponents, just waiting for one to twitch. Sadly patience has never been Vic Stones strong point so he fires first, catching one right in the face while the other manages to dodge the blast. The one hit, sinks to her hands and knees shaking her head, the other leaps at him.

"Fa'ko!" The attacker yells at him as she charges, spreading her arms wide as if she intends to hug him, Cyborg guesses she intends to hit him in two places at once. With his hands still in cannon mode, Cyborg raises his arms in time to block her, using all his strength to do it as she pushes his arms towards himself. Straining, he finds his face inches from his teeth grinding adversary, they hold the pose for a second

"Fak off, yourself!" He says as he brings his armored forehead crashing into his opponents face, he is rewarded by a crunch, an "Oumph!" and release from the strain on his arms as his opponent falls onto her back unconscious with a nosebleed. Just in time as well, as the other one seems to be regaining. Cyborg makes a quick decision and leaps at her as she tried to get back on her feet, having changed his cannons into hands again; he delivers a solid double handed blow to his target's head leaving her unconscious as well on the ground with a large bruising area on it.

Etrigan is begrudgingly nurturing a growing respect for his opponents, what they lack in physical strength, compared to his own, they make up for in tactics and numbers. Whenever he seemed to have one firmly in his grasp, the rest would attack at once, forcing him to drop his quarry to defend himself.

"Inferno!" He commands to his outstretched hands, summoning forth hellfire from them to consume the group in front of him. They scatter expertly, avoiding harm completely while firing their stinging bolts at him. He covers his head to avoid taking a stray bolt in the eyes, they don't harm him, but they sting and he is sure his vision would be affected if his eyes were hit.

"Xi'i yl!" He hears one of them yell while he is blocking his own vision; the command is felt a second later as all the Tamaranians plow into him, with four clinging to his arms and two to his legs in an attempt to immobilize him. It works partially as he is lifted off the ground, unfortunately for them, they aren't holding too well onto his right arm, which he begins to shake viciously, throwing its holders away from him. The limb is quickly used to knock down the one holding onto his left leg, with a blow to the head that makes her slump onto the ground. The two of the group that did not grab him, make their presence felt after this, or rather the blinding light in his eyes and the solid blow he feels ramming into his solar plexus. Etrigan's air is knocked out of him, and he can't see properly anymore.

"Wretches let go of me, so I can teach you the meaning of pain!" He yells at them.

"Sounds like someone needs a hand." Cyborg's voice is heard, before a whistling sound is and the Tamaranians are thrown from him in an explosion. Etrigan is dropped onto the ground with a splash, telling him the aliens had carried him over the small stream. "You all right?" Cyborg's blurred image asks Etrigan as he gets up.

"Just point me in their direction." Etrigan answers angrily, Cyborg lets on a smile Etrigan can't see, but fires his cannon in the general direction of the Tamaranians.

Batman and Raven are tense, and had been since they first heard the distant voices of the approaching aliens. Batman looks over at Raven before signing to her.

"I need a head count." Raven nods at him before releasing her cloak from the beam she had attached herself to, floating gently away from it, she disappears into the shadows. Reappearing a second later, holding up eight fingers. Batman nods again before signing again. "Wait for them to all come into the room." Raven nods at him in agreement before attaching herself to the beam again, near the opposing wall so she wouldn't be plainly visible to anyone looking up.

Waiting a full minute they see the first Tamaranian step cautiously into the room, she gives a hand sign to those behind her before moving in. The others move in behind her, quickly scanning the floor they all focus their sights on the only other exit, a tunnel leading down to the left of the one they had come from. Raven watches Batman for a sign but sees him lean to one side before silently dropping off his beam to hang upside down suspended by a wire. He looks down once spotting the rear guard moving into the spot below him, looking up at Raven he spots another one having moved into a similar position under her. He locks eye with Raven for a second before he nods at her, she looks down in response and spots the target, she nods back at him in understanding.

Batman times his attack perfectly, he drops down on his target, wrapping his cape around his target, injecting her with the fast acting sedative with one hand and grapping hold of her with the other before rapidly retracting the wire, pulling him back up to the beam, the whole thing had only take a second. Raven drops a second later, but she spreads her cloak wide on the way down, covering her target with it before disappearing into the floor. After a second, Batman looks up, seeing Raven stash the unconscious Tamaranian on the highest beam. Batman ties a rope around his target's feet before securing the other end to the beam and letting her drop to hang upside down.

"Griffadi'r? Timaren'r?" The voices from below tell them; the missing people have been noticed. Batman nods at Raven before standing up to his full height on the beam to look down, a clear sigh he was not going to hide any more. Raven notes that the man knows how to make an entrance as he drops down, landing with his feet on one the backs of the aliens, driver her into the ground, the others stare at him for a second. Raven decides it's time to drop down as well, landing quietly behind the one standing furthest from Batman, she quickly embraces her in her cloak.

The Commander is impressed, three of her warriors are already down and they had not noticed the tall human with the cape till now, maybe the traitor was right to fear the Batman. No matter she would fight him to prove no human was a match for a true Tamaranian warrior, her subordinates knows she desires this fight and therefore does not need to be told to stay out. A yelp behind her makes her take a quick look behind her, seeing another of her warriors collapse out of a blue cloak, a grey skinned woman with glowing white eyes emerges out of the cloak as well standing silently behind the unconscious warrior. The Commander points at the robed woman, confident that the three remaining warriors would be able to deal with her, before she turns to face the human.

Like Nightwing did Raven notes how much the Tamaranians rushing her resembles her long lost friend, and that the rushing tactic they are using is the same Starfire always used during their sparring matches. Back then Starfire had always won, but Raven was weaker back then and didn't know the tricks she knows now, also back then she was holding back much more than needed because she didn't want to inflict injuries. Floating above the ground she moves back towards the wall, letting her opponents come close. Just before they are about to make impact, Raven sinks into the wall, letting the alien's fists collided with it. She reappears a few meters behind them, running she jumps into a hand stand before spreading her legs and turning her body, she feels the impact of her feet colliding with the backs of two heads before she disappears again. Appearing again for a second to deliver a solid punch to the last of the three's midsection before she disappears again.

Batman is circling his opponent, waiting for her to attack. In the mean time he notes that Raven was doing well on her end, appearing as puffs of smoke she delivers a hit to one of the three before she disappears again. But he notices she is slowing down, the rapid teleportation is taking its toll on her. At this point his opponent charges him, he counters the swing she aims at his head by moving forwards, letting her arm hit the side of his head before hitting her with three solid blows to her own head. Feeling the impact on the side of his own head, cushioned as it was, he knows he can't allow her to land a solid punch on him. Hidden by his cape he uses one hand to pull out another syringe with sedative.

"This was too easy, I thought you said these were though." Robin says, looking though the dispensing smoke, spotting the 7 unconscious aliens on the ground.

"They are, these were fighting on half steam." Nightwing agrees with him, this had been a sparring with Starfire back in the day; she would never use all of her powers to win in a training match against him. "I wonder…" He says, spotting a swelling area on one of the Tamaranians arms.

"What is it?" Robin asks as he walks over to have a look at what Nightwing has spotted. "Eww, I hope that's not something infectious." He says while looking at it. Nightwing smiles when a sudden realization hits him.

"You can come out now Beastboy." He says out loud, the green changeling seems to appear out of thin air, doing a mock bow at his former leader.

"You called?" He says with a smile.

"Good job Gar." Nightwing smiles back.

"Away from the Metal Man!" Etrigan yells before swatting away the last Tamaranian, causing her to slam into the nearby wall. After getting his sighs back Etrigan had resorted to using single, powerful punches on his opponents, it had worked well for him. Cyborg on the other hand had been blindsided by one of the aliens, one of which had been preparing to punch him hard in the head before Etrigan intervened.

Cyborg gets to his feet, noting he was going to need a recharge soon and a few repairs. One of his shoulder cannons has been torn off, he only has 2 missiles left and parts of his armor is dented and scraped. But he is still mostly intact; something he was happy to se was the case. Looking over at Etrigan he can see him huffing like he had done a few laps.

"So that's all of them?" Cyborg asks, looking around.

"They are all, incapacitated." Etrigan says, looking at each of the unconscious aliens, as daring them to rise again.

"Yield human!" The Commander says to the man she has still to land a proper blow on. Batman's only reply to get is to motion for her to bring it with his left hand, keeping the right concealed. He alien leaps at him again, and again Batman steps forwards bringing his right hand up and punches her in the stomach with the syringe, she whimpers shortly before she loses consciousness. Batman puts her gently down on the ground before stealing a glaze at how Raven is faring, seeing her hovering over the ground while the beam she had suspended herself from earlier dances in her energy. One Tamaranian is clutching her arm with a pained expression on her face, Batman guesses it is broken. The two others are busy trying to avoid the steel beam swinging after them, Raven seems to tire of them as she levitates several of the bricks she tore loose with the beam, before sending them flying after her opponents. One, two, three 'cracks' are heard and the Tamaranians all fall over, unconscious.

"This went better than expected." Raven states.

"We came prepared, they didn't. Can you feel if any of the others are still fighting?" Batman asks, while looking over the injuries inflicted on their opponents. Raven closes her eyes for a moment before answering.

"Judging by emotions, we are done here. Everyone but Etrigan seems to be happy." She found it prudent not to mention Batman's state of mind as well.

"Good, can you get us all out of here?" He asks while motioning with his foot at the fallen Commander at his feet. Raven nods before letting her shadow expand, swallowing the room and everyone in it before disappearing through the walls.

Unseen by the pair, a large pair of reptilian eyes watch them go, silently glad he did not decide to barge in on the fight. Sure he wanted to eat the Bat and use his cape as a dinner napkin and the orange skinned females looked tasty too, but the grey one kind of scared him. In a tunnel with tons of debris it was unwise to challenge someone who could move stuff with their minds, unless you could jump them from behind them of course.

Slipping through the walls, dirt and empty tunnels Raven picks up the others and their fallen opponents, receiving a few surprised yelps and a grumble on the way.


	14. The Steel Juggernaut

A shadow appears in front of the now wrecked warehouse, regurgitating its passengers in a neat pile and in a standing group.

"Whoa, I didn't realize they were all as hot as Star!" Beastboy exclaims, looking at the pile of Tamaranians. Four of the others groan at him, apparently being back in the Doom Patrol didn't earn him any girlfriends.

"So it was true that Slade betrayed us, but I didn't think it would be to you, Batman." An awfully familiar voice to the Titans says from above.

"Blackfire!" Nightwing exclaims in surprise while looking up, seeing said alien, along with a swarm of other Tamaranians floating above them.

"That's Empress Blackfire to you, earthworm!" One of her closest guards exclaims, Nightwing and the other Titans remember seeing many like him during their visit on Tamaran, royal guard.

"But who might this earthworm be?" The Empress herself asks. She is wearing the same outfit she was wearing the time the Titans almost lost Starfire to a marriage Blackfire engineered. Black tube top, skirt and boots along with the armor that covers most of the area's her sister left exposed. She is also wearing the strange crown of Tamaran along with the fur lined cape.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Where is your sister?!" Nightwing shout at her, the others were silently questioning his wisdom; Batman is internally scolding him for showing this amount of emotion in the face of the enemy.

"Phh…worm." She mutters and looks up. "Bring him along!" Blackfire commands, most her army begins to descend on the group cautiously, as they see the group of unconscious warriors near them.

"Umm Batman, not to doubt you or anything, but calling the Justice League sounds good right about now." Batman silently agrees with the green changeling talking to him, but unlike Beastboy he doesn't let his worry show, this was Clark's department.

"Etrigan, I promised you a fight?" Raven asks, getting the attention of the demon. "Well here it is. Guys, keep him safe, me and Etrigan will keep them busy." She says to the group before turning around, Nightwing catches a brief glimpse of a grey hand growing red, and the sound of boots being ripped apart.

"Move!" Batman commands, having pushed his JL alarm. Before beginning to fall back

"Rae! What are you doing?!" Beastboy yells at Raven, she turns around to look at him with four red eyes. Beastboy stares at her for a second before following after Batman.

"I'm getting angry." She says after him, before turning around again to face the oncoming warriors with Etrigan by her side. "Can you fly Etrigan?" She asks him.

"I cannot." The demon says, licking his pointed teeth in anticipation of the coming violence.

"Happy landing." Raven says before she grabs the demon and throws him at a clumped group of warriors. Raven launches herself after him aiming for a smaller group, her cloak falling back to reveal her true form.

Etrigan having learned from his fight in the sewer, resumes his attacks of short powerful punches before moving on, using his victims as spring boards. Raven cannonballs into the group she has aimed herself at, knocking several out of her way before halting at the impact into one of them, proceeding to slam her target hard on the side of the head.

The Tamaranian strategy is the same as the one they had in the sewers, rush and cling, Etrigan has learned this, Raven has not. Her cannon ball rush was successful in her mind, she was drawing the attention of a large part of the invaders, but getting rushed from all sides was not a part of the plan.

"What's she doing back there?" Beastboy asks as the group moves into cover between some of the other warehouses.

"She is buying us time; the League will be here in moments. Incoming!" Batman yells, looking over his shoulder he spots several Tamaranians coming towards them.

"Get OFF!" Raven yell's, before she rips her arms free of the clinging aliens grasps. She punches several of the closest ones, including the ones holding onto her legs. Free again she makes the most of it by punching her way through several of the aliens in her path, the one leading towards Blackfire who along with her sizeable guard had not moved.

Etrigan is happy as he can be; he is in a massive battle with a seemingly unending stream of targets for him to rip and tear at. Sure the annoying Jason in his head keeps telling him not to kill any of them, which he obeys. But Jason says nothing to the broken limbs and non-fatal lacerations he is inflicting.

"Guards, remove the red skin from my presence." Blackfire commands, noting how close Raven is getting to her. The guards respond instantly by diving into the combat with the half-demon with their spears lowered. Blackfire is reminded of someone when she sees the spears of the guards glow black for a second before stopping dead, causing the guards holding them to slide their hands along the shafts. The spears then begin to bend and twist like snakes, trying to wrap themselves around their wielders. Several of them getting caught, wrapped up tightly and with the spear points pointing at their throats. The remainder quickly abandons their weapons, opting to fly at high speed towards at their target.

Raven is caught off guard by them, but instead of clinging to her like the others, the guards use their momentum to land heavy punches to her frame. She feels the impact to her stomach first, knocking the wind out of her. The first hit is followed up a second later by two punches to her head that sends her flying away.

The group on the ground is shocked to see her limp form rocket away over the buildings, before they prepare to be assaulted again.

Raven dimly feels the impact in her back that tells her she has stopped her flight, another impact on her head and the feeling of concrete beneath her body, tells her she has finally stopped moving.

"Ow." She peeps while flopping onto her back. She lies there for a second before remembering she is needed somewhere, sitting up fast causes her head to spin a bit so she closes her eyes a moment to get herself to calm down and heal herself somewhat. Opening her eyes and getting to her feet, she notes a chill running up her back, putting a hand back there she notes the impact with the ground had torn her cloak off and the back of her leotard along with some of the skin. Raven curses a little while pulling off the hood, the only part of her cloak that remains, that simple piece of fabric had been with her since Jump City. Sighing she quickly gathers all the pieces she can find of it before sending it back the cave. Looking up she notices where she is, the dock belonging to the USS Gotham. Raven smiles wickedly at herself at the idea she just had, at least it would serve as a test of her own mental limits.

"This ain't going well!" Cyborg complains while shooting at the approaching aliens.

"Keep it up, we have to stall them till the League gets here. Batman where are they?!" Nightwing yells while throwing an exploding birdarang.

"I don't know, teleportation must be down again." Batman replies while delivering a round house kick to the face of his opponent, silently he was cursing and mentally noting down the League needed to get those fixed.

Something like the sound of thunder is heard in the distance before the whistling sound of incoming shells is heard. Several black explosions ripple through the Tamaranians still in the sky, knocking many to the ground and spreading the rest.

"What the hell was that?!" Robin yells, a hint of panic in his voice.

"Cannon fire, but who called in the army?" Cyborg answers.

"Umm, I think that might be the navy, but do they make floating battleships here?" Beastboy says pointing over the rooftops of the warehouses across from them. The group follows his fingers direction, and blinks a few times to see if they are not imagining the USS Gotham floating above the city.

Raven is quite pleased from where she is sitting, this is easier than she thought it would be, to anyone not her she wouldn't say this was like being a kid with a model, turning the cannons with their fingers and making matching sounds when they fired. Of course the museum ship has no real ammunition so she has to load her own powers into the five quadruple cannon batteries, but it is easy to do so since she only has to aim the cannons. She would deny it to Beastboy's face, but she admits to herself that this is kind of cool. Then she fires again.

"My Empress we must withdraw!" One of Blackfire's commanders pleads.

"No, you will fight that monstrosity." She replies with an annoyed tone, it was not planned to have over half her warriors knocked out by the sudden concentrated cannon fire. But at least the other demon is back on the ground as well, she can see him raging at her warriors who keeps out of reach of him.

"Y-yes my liege." The commander stumbles before yelling to his warriors to charge, the sound of thunder is heard again and Blackfire along with the commander hears the whistling sound a second too late before they are caught in the blast zone.

Raven, floating above the floor on the bridge, notes she now has the attention of the remaining Tamaranians who are now too close for her to hit with the main guns. Instead she shifts her consciousness to the six anti-aircraft guns, three double barrel turrets on each side before commencing fire on her swarming enemies.

"If the League takes much longer they will be left with cleanup duty." Robin notes, looking at the scores of fallen aliens littering the ground, so far they had confirmed they were only knocked unconscious.

"Somehow I am not surprised." Batman says with an annoyed tone, it had taken far too long for the League to respond.

"Who needs em? We got Rae!" Cyborg says with a huge smile, they had come to the unspoken conclusion that she was in control of the warship. In the distance they can hear the sound of machinegun fire.

"So what do we do with them all? We don't have that many holding cells in the cave." Robin asks his mentor.

"First we go help Raven cleaning this up, we get the League to clean this up afterwards." Batman says before yelling; "Coming Etrigan?!" The yellow demon looks up from the fallen form of Blackfire he was studying. The group breaks into a run following the Caped Crusader towards the sounds of warfare.

They arrive a few moments later; Raven had moved the ship much closer to their initial position, spotting the several fallen forms of the Tamaranians who had fallen to the gunfire. The remaining are flying around the ship firing bright green red and yellow bolts at the massive ship opposing them. To the observers it doesn't look like the starbolts are having any effect on it, either they bounce harmlessly off the massive hull or they are swallowed by a black aura that erupts whenever the bolts are about to hit something critical like the guns.

Cyborg takes aim at one of the remaining aliens, firing a single concentrate blast he knocks the female out of the sky. This seems to confuse the seven remaining invaders, caught between the seemingly impervious metal juggernaut and a group of warriors. Caught between the two, the group of aliens group up as well, floating back to back in a defensive formation. Raven seems to notice this as well, as her voice emerges from the ship, speaking tamaranese.

"_Warriors of Tamaran, surrender!"_ She emphasized her point by turning every battery at her disposal towards the group. _"We do not wish to harm you if we don't have to."_ The group seems surprised to be addressed by a voice speaking their own language. They exchange nervous glazes at each other, before nodding somberly to each other.

"_We yield."_ One of them says, a tall female, while the glow disappears from her hands and eyes, her comrades mirror her actions, before they all float slowly to the ground. The group of defeated Tamaranians, three males and four females, huddle together on the ground looking scared at their advancing captors.

"_No sudden movements or the yellow one will harm you severely." _Ravens voice warns the group, who casts nervous looks at the demon. "Guys, I need to put this old bird down, it's getting heavy."

The team doesn't reply, as they don't know if she can actually hear them, but they herd their captives away, picking up the fallen ones on the ground. Satisfied with the distance between her and the others, Raven gently maneuvers the ship down to the water surface, after making sure the water was deep enough here, she simply drops it. The resulting splash and wave of displaced water rushes over the dock; flooding much of the area.

Mentally exhausted Raven emerges from the bridge, spotting a lone Tamaranian lying on the roof of a nearby building. Flying over to the fallen form of the male, she throws him over her shoulder. "_Now to find the others."_ Scanning the area, she is suddenly confused; she can't sense them anywhere near her. Teleporting over she appears at the ruined warehouse, noting that no one is here, not even the fallen Tamaranians. Worried that the Tamaranians had regained consciousness faster than she thought as she drops the one she is carrying before focusing on the bond she shares with Nightwing.

"_Richard where are you?"_

"_The Hall of Justice by the looks…"_ They are cut off, unknown to either they both experience a sudden pain in their heads.

"They are out of your reach now, demon!" A voice Raven could have done without hearing any time soon warns her. Raven feel the wind grabbing at her as the Tamaranian at her feet disappears in a red blur. Raven looks up to address the speaker.

"Zatanna, I thought Batman told you to stay away from me?" Raven duly notes Zatanna is not alone this time, besides her levitating form is amongst others, Superman, the Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and the Flash appears on the ground below them.

"Come along quietly Shadow." Superman says in a patronizing tone that brooks no argument, Raven hate's being patronized.

"If you are going to arrest me, I would know why." She says, guessing Zatanna had made her into a villain...which wasn't completely unfair.

"Aiding known felons, assault and bodily harm of a member of the League and the general public, forceful mental domination of members of said League." Zatanna says while counting her fingers, Raven makes the rolling eyes motion.

"Funny, but I don't mentally dominate anyone. And I am not going anywhere with you." Raven dismisses the League, knowing they will probably attack her now.

"Have it your way then." Superman says before he charges her, plowing into her with the force of a locomotive.

Raven feels her back impact with something uneven, before she gathers her thoughts enough to throw Superman away with her telekinesis. She is quickly boxed inside a green cube, courtesy of Green Lantern. She teleports out of it appearing a few feet away from it, she has only just solidified before a rain of fists begin to strike at her; Flash. She creates an omni-directional blast away from herself, causing the scarlet speedster to land a few feet away. Quickly she creates a dark ramp between her and him, as he lands only for a second he gets up and runs at her, getting caught unaware he runs off the ramp, his own momentum sends him flying into the bay. Raven doesn't get the chance to turn to face the next one, as a metal ball connects with her temple, causing her world to go into loops. Before blacking out completely, she feels several other impacts add to the damage.


	15. Justice League

"What the hell just happened?! One second we are in Gotham now we are in…Metropolis?!" Cyborg yells as he spots the Daily Planet through the façade windows.

"Flash or Superman moved us all here." Batman grumbles, he hates when they do that.

"But why? And where's Raven?" Robin asks, pointing out the fact that they are missing the woman.

"Zatanna, she brought the League after her, didn't she?" Nightwing asks while staring at his old mentor, who nods in agreement with him. Nightwing sighs while throwing his hands into the air. "Terrific! We call them in do deal with an alien invasion then proceeds to dump us here and are now going to pound Rae into the ground!" He complains to no one in particular out of agitation.

They are all gathered in the central hall of the Justice League's office in Metropolis; the Hall of Justice. They and the usual staff are all currently busy placing all of the Tamranians into holding cells, leaving Blackfire in her own private cell. The main hall in which they were delivered in is shaped like the bottom of a ship turned upside down, with white marble columns supporting the roof at the walls, the floor is white marble as well, giving the room an atmosphere of a Greek temple. But with Wonder Woman as the aesthetic designer, it was to be expected. A large video screen is covering most of one of the back walls. Said screen comes to life, which grabs the attention of everyone except Etrigan who is carrying several Tamaranians away, which apparently amused him.

"Batman? Batman can you hear me?" Superman's image asks.

"We hear you Superman, why are we in Metropolis?" Batman asks with a hint of anger in his voice.

"The Shadow is neutralized; we had to get the rest of you out of her mental reach." Superman explains.

"What's he talking about?" Cyborg asks rubbing his head and looking at Nightwing and Beastboy, both shrugs.

"Release her, immediately!" Batman demands while staring at the man on the screen who takes on a confused look on his face. Before he turns to someone behind him, covering the camera with his hand.

"They seem to still be under her influence." The group in the hall shakes their heads or rolls their eyes; Superman was trying to keep them from hearing something while not blocking the microphone.

"It may take some time for it to fade." A female voice says.

"Covering the camera doesn't stop the microphone Superman, you should know this. And what are you talking about Zatanna?" Batman demands.

"The Shadow has had you all under her influence; you were all puppets dancing on her strings." The group just stares wide eyed at her, the whole thing sounded ridiculous, but it was possible, except for one thing.

"And Etrigan?" Batman asks coldly, knowing J'onn had to strain to just get into the demons head.

"Promise him a fight and he shows up anywhere, come to the satellite when you feel better." Zatanna replies before killing the feed, leaving the room oddly quiet.

"Rae wouldn't do that, would she?" Beastboy asks timidly with his ears hanging.

"Why would she Gar? What would she gain by it?" Nightwing replies, echoing the same thoughts Batman was having, crimes always had motives when perpetrated by a sane person.

"She used no such control; I would have sensed her influence upon you." Etrigan says as he walks into the room.

"So Zatanna has apparently cooked up a story to get the League to come down on Rae; what do we plan to do about it?" Cyborg asks crossing his arms and taking on a serious face.

"We go get her back; they will have taken her to the satellite." Batman says with a stern look on his face as well, receiving a host of smiles.

"We are with you man, but I really need a recharge." Cyborg says while pointing at a monitor on his right arm reading: _Remaining power: 2%_. Batman nods at him.

"Follow me to the lab; will you come with us Etrigan?" Batman asks.

"She promised me grand battle, and she kept her word, I will assist her for that. But I must rest as well." He replies before he shrinks back to Jason, who nods in agreement.

_30 minutes later on the JLA satellite_

The teleportation pads light up shortly before a blue flash precedes the arrival of the visitors. Beastboy and Jason look a little green, obviously not used to the method of transportation.

"I prefer Raven's way." Beastboy says, walking ungainly into the large central hall of the satellite, which houses the teleportation pads and the command center. The group receives a few short looks from the workers there, and a wave in greeting from Mr. Terrific manning the command center a floor above them. Batman leads the group down the stairs, and down one of the corridors that lead to the holding cells.

Halfway down the corridor they see Superman staring out of a window, lost in thought, they march on ignoring him, but he does notice them as they pass him.

"Hold on, I know why you are here, but you can't see her, Zatanna says it's too early." Superman says while moving to block their path, Batman walks right up to the man's face.

"Don't believe for a second you can tell me what I can or cannot do!" Superman is visibly stunned at the obvious hostility in the man's voice and slowly moves out of the way.

"Don't do anything stupid, it's for your own good I was keeping you away." Superman says before flying down the corridors.

The group continues their walk without further interruptions, finally coming into the detention cells, spotting the Martian Manhunter standing outside a cell while taking notes on a tablet. The group walks up to the Martian and takes a look inside the cell he's standing at.

Raven is sitting on her knees with a metal yoke-like contraption around her neck and wrists, the contraption itself is secured to the ground and ceiling with chains. They are all reminded of Hannibal Lecter when they look at the strange metal mask that covers the lower part of her face. It is not the restraints that shock the group the most, it is the bruises she is showing. A large area on her head is swelling, along with a host of other places that are showing off a deeper shade of red than that of her skin. Right now her eyes are closed; her breathing is easy in her apparent unconscious state.

"Dude…what have you done to her?!" Beastboy almost shouts at the tall Martian.

"She resisted arrest." He answers shortly.

"Release her." Batman orders.

"Unfortunately in this matter your opinion and status has been temporarily revoked. Now I have to search her." The Martian explains as he placed the tablet back in its holder by the door before he begins to fade out of view.

"Wait." Batman request makes J'onn hold his incorporeal form. "Find out if she knows." J'onn nods at the request after Batman points at his face then disappears.

"Dude what was that about?" Beastboy asks Batman. "And what have they done to her to get her look like her old man?" Batman sighs; this was something he would have preferred Raven explained to them.

"Raven told me that during her fight with Malchior, he cast a spell on her that caused her appearance to be altered, so instead of having her inner demon hidden it was now her human side that was hidden. She said she spent half a year trying to find a spell to reverse the effect, she found one that allowed her to look like she normally did." He explains.

"So you're saying Rae, got cursed with the looks of Trigon?" Cyborg asks.

"Yes. As for your first question Beastboy, there is nothing I can do to stop J'onn in this matter. Jason would you go and get the other founders and Zatanna assembled for a meeting, I need to see this." Jason nods before walking off.

J'onn materializes in the cell standing before the demon noting the room is much too warm for his tastes. He reaches forwards with his large hands to touch her temples, just before he makes contact he pulls back as she opens her eyes suddenly, staring at him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She warns him.

"You leave us no choice." J'onn replies as he reaches forwards again, Raven doesn't struggle or attempt to pull away.

"Your funeral." She says before he makes contact.

J'onn finds himself in a strange place, the sky is black as night, dotted with red stars. He is standing on a floating pathway made of jagged rocks, there are a few dead looking trees sticking out of the ground along the way. Looking up into the sky he sees a huge piece of rock floating there with a city on its back. Unlike the rest of the place, weak white light shines from it. J'onn decides it must be significant, so he takes off and heads for the city.

Landing on the edge, J'onn looks down the darkened streets through the main gate, seeing where the light is coming from; pale ghosts. They are all transparent, radiating their own blue light. They seem to enact their own daily lives. J'onn notes he must be in a market square as he looks at the stands lining the street. Stepping closer he is greeted silently by a smiling ghost of a man who motions to his empty stands, J'onn gives him a confused look, the look is returned by the man.

"Ah an outsider, what you are looking for is down there." The man says in a whispery voice, while pointing down the street before turning to a ghostly customer, J'onn notes that the merchant passes a round fruit like object to the customer before he moves on. Floating down the street, he is a bit curious why all the ghosts smile at him when he looks at them, last time he forced his way into some ones head he was assaulted by the minds guardians, here he feels almost welcomed inside. There seems to be an entire community of ghosts living in the city he notes, there are ghosts of old men and women as well as children. A common theme of the architecture seems to be an odd combination of the square buildings he sees the hooded and robed monks come and go through, he guesses they are temples of some kind, and the more modern stone and glass combination of the rest and most of the city. Both types share the common architectural decoration of mimicking the hoods the monks wear over the window and doorframes.

Coming into an open square he walks over to the two large stone statues the center, standing back to back with a small path between them and what looks to be the remains of a garden around them. They are both three times the height of him, the one facing him is that of an elderly woman in a hood and robe in the same style as the monks he had seen earlier. In one arm, she is holding a giggling infant who is reaching out to touch the woman's smiling face. In the other hand she is holding a book without a title. J'onn reads the inscription plate at the statues feet.

_Azar_

_High Priestess of Azerath_

_Beloved by her people._

J'onn thinks for a moment, before moving around to look at the other statue, the names Azar and Azerath holds no meaning to him, but he notes them down for future reference. The other statue is more dramatic, in the style of some of the hero paintings J'onn had seen when he visited Earths museums. On the ground is a muscular demon with claws on his hands and four eyes carved in his forehead, a scream is carved into his face as a spear is impaling it through the chest. The spear holder is another female in a cloak and hood, but much younger than the other one. She is holding the spear with both hands, but the face beneath the hood reveals a face showing no emotions at all as she locks eyes with the demon on the ground. J'onn again reads the plate at the feet, hoping to find a something useful.

_Raven_

_Vanquisher of Trigon_

_Hero_

"It didn't really happen with a spear you know?" The ghost of a small girl says to him, like the monks she is dressed in a cape with a hood, the hood is pulled back however, revealing a face with big eyes and jaw length hair.

"You mean this?" J'onn asks while waving at the statue, noting the ghost only comes up to his knees and that there is definitely more to her than what is seen and in a way; less.

"Yeah, but the artists decided they couldn't replicate the actual event, so they settled with this. But if you wanna know how it really happened you should go ask them." The child says with a hint of excitement.

"Them?" J'onn asks.

"Ah, it's easier if you see for yourself; just go to the temple, up there." She says while pointing a short hand in the direction of the towering temple in the center of the city.

"Thank you." J'onn says before flying off to the temple with the girl looking after him. This city is strange to him, he had encountered constructs like this before in other minds, but they never had thoughts of their own, like the city beneath him, like it was a real city but much more muted than what he was used to from humans. Landing at what seems to be the main temple gate, he sees a flock of ghostly doves picking away at the similarly ghostly seed on the ground. The feeder is a tall woman dressed in the robe and hood of the monks; she doesn't look up at him from her seat besides the door. But she notices his presence.

"She is expecting you." The woman says. J'onn looks at her for a second before walking to the massive wooden door that's flanked by two faceless statues with the garb like the woman. J'onn pushes against the doors that slowly open, before he slips inside. He is greeted by a warm glow once he enters, the room looks as if it carved out of brown stone, but it is all elegant. Around the circular room are seats carved into the stone, each seat is occupied by a solid figure, all wearing hoods and cloaks of different colors that hide their faces and most of their bodies but they seem not to notice him. J'onn knows he is at his journeys end as he lays eyes on the floating white orb in the center of the room. J'onn takes two steps inside the room before a reaction is made by the red cloaked figure on his right.

"You should not be here!" J'onn can almost feel the room erupt as the others become aware of him, the orb fades to a dull white before it sinks to the ground into a small bowl. The speaker is not hiding the tidal wave of anger that seems to radiate off her. The black cloaked one next to it seems to be of a similar mindset as J'onn feels its hate directed at him.

"Agreed, his presence here is unwelcome." A yellow cloaked one answers, while pushing her glasses up her nose.

"I say we kick him out." An orange one replies.

"I say we kick his butt." The green cloaked one adds. J'onn is confused at this; he had never seen anything like this before, none of them appeared to share the thoughts that are being directed at him, like a hive mind. He decides to try to be diplomatic since none of them had risen from their seats yet.

"Wait, I am only here in a search for knowledge, I only wish to know what your mistress plans are."

"I told you that I have no plans, you are here because someone told you I am dangerous." The yellow cloaked one replies.

"I am afraid that I cannot take that as a useful answer, I have to know for myself." J'onn says before taking a step further inside, before freezing in his tracks.

"I knew you wouldn't, but this is my mind. Here, I make the rules." They all speak in perfect unison. "Now remove your hands."

J'onn strains his head to look down at his hands, taking on a surprised expression as they flop down like boiled spaghetti, in an instant he is back in the cell, his hands still looking like spaghetti. He looks up at the four glowing eyes of the demon in front of him, she seems amused. J'onn recomposes his hands before he fades out of the cell.

"Well?" Batman asks the Martian.

"Her mind is too strong or different; I learned nothing from her this time." J'onn sighs, noticing a shadow of a smile coming across Batman's features to J'onn's puzzlement.

"We are having a meeting, all of you come on." Batman motions for them to follow, Nightwing is the last to leave. He can't really believe this had to happen to Raven. Like she hadn't been put through enough in her life, now she was being treated like a criminal for no reason. Raven seems to notice him staring.

"_Get a move one Richard before they think I am brainwashing you."_ Her thoughts echo in his head.

"_I'm sorry this is happening to you Rae."_ He sends back, Raven only replies with a thumbs up sign, before using the same hand to wave him away, she needed the down time right now to heal.

"Ok, so now that we are all here. Do you mind telling us why we are all here?" Flash asks, after Nightwing is seated.

"I want you to release Raven." Batman states at his seated colleagues that have arranged themselves around a rectangular table with the Gotham team on one side and the remaining six League founders along with Zatanna on the other.

"And who's Raven?" John Steward asks.

"You know her as the Shadow." Batman replies.

"Is this the same Raven we met years ago?" Hawkgirl asks with a raised eyebrow and Batman nods in confirmation.

"We can't do that, and we told you why." Superman continues.

"Then tell us why you think she is using mind control on us." Nightwing asks while staring at Zatanna wondering again what it was that made her do all of this.

"She is using a complicated and subtle spell on you, to influence your minds, it is not complete control but it is influencing you." Zatanna explains, unaware of Jason's sniffing the air and that Batman was holding up her story against what Raven told him last night about her powers. He admits she could have been lying to him, but he doubted it, there just wasn't a reason for it and he had been looking for one. After what she did to Slade she had taken the most dangerous and obvious candidate out of the equation, which meant she would have to have some other benefactor if she really did have ill intents. Brother Blood was a candidate, but the man's obsession with Cyborg made it unlikely and he wasn't sure either Blood or Raven knew there was a connection between them.

"Is she using it now?" Jason asks the trick question.

"Yes, it's is why you are here defending her." The Gotham team exchange looks at Zatanna's reply before Jason continues.

"Then why is it, Etrigan can smell no spells at work on any of them." Jason asks without batting an eye. If Zatanna is caught off guard by this she doesn't show it, unlike Flash who looks at the man with a quizzing look.

"Like I said, it is subtle." She repeats.

"You use magic to do your laundry." He replies calmly, Zatanna stares at him for a second with a cross expression before arguing back.

"With all due respect Jason you could be making that up." Jason sighs at Stewards reply before whispering to himself, calling forth Etrigan again. The yellow demon, grumbles once before sniffing the air again.

"Thee use a dimensional spell to hide thy purse." He says. "There is but one sent here belonging to Raven's, and it is upon him." Etrigan stares at Nightwing, who knows what he means. The other Leaguers are giving him weird looks as well.

"It is an aftereffect from a situation that required Raven to enter my mind years ago; it's like an open phone line between our minds." He explains while looking at Zatanna. "Also, if she really did want to control us, it would be easier for her to use her empathy. Which J'onn should have noticed." He continues and nods at the Manhunter who nods in thoughtful agreement, he would have noticed such a thing.

"Right, I am going to need a third opinion if she is or is not using mind control on you." Superman gives in, revealing his reluctance to get involved with this. "But what of the other charges we have on her; several counts of assaults and aiding known villains."

"All of her 'victims' have been burglars or muggers. And the night she and Zatanna fought, she was working undercover for me by keeping tabs on Black Mask." Batman explains.

"She hit me first." Zatanna suddenly snaps unknowingly soundind like child getting blamed for something, as she crosses her arms and puts on a sour face.

"And you almost killed her in retaliation." Batman counters, getting the Leaguers to give her an odd look along with Cyborg's and Beastboy's angry one. The looks from the Leaguers tell Batman that Zatanna might have told them something different. "What exactly has she told you?"

Wonder Woman sighs before speaking. "Zatanna told us she tracked the Shadow to the docks watching over a group of suspected gangsters, after asking for its surrender it attacked her brutally, she said she never got a chance to hit it. When you visited her in the hospital, she sensed the mind controlling magic on you. She also said the Shadow had been rampaging through Gotham leaving a number of civilians in a near catatonic state." Batman grumbles as he looks at Zatanna in disappointment.

"So what did you learn J'onn?" Hawkgirl asks wanting to know if there was anything at all they could pin on the half-demon.

"I learned nothing; her mind is able to resist me, if I were to break into it through force, it would not be without consequences. Which I am not at this stage prepared to risk. But I have never seen a mind like hers." J'onn admits.

"So we don't know if she truly has ill intentions or not?" Hawkgirl asks. It was quite unusual that J'onn could not retrieve anything useful from a mind, but it was in tune with how he had to strain to get into Etrigans.

"There is one way, but it will most likely hurt her." Diana mentions, unfastening it from her belt before putting her golden lasso on the table, earning a quizzing look from Beastboy and Cyborg. "This is the Lasso of Truth, it will compel those ensnared in it to speak the truth, but as Shayera and I leaned once, the truth hurts demons." She explains.

"Hold up, ain't that going to be torture?" Cyborg asks, worried how much they were going to harm Rae to get answers.

"The demon Shayera and I encountered only complained mildly about it, but we don't know how it will affect her."

"And you people are not going to be satisfied in any other way." Cyborg crosses his arms with sour look on his face.

"Look we guess you are her friend, be we have to know." Green Lantern tries to reason with him.

"She not just my friend." Cyborg says earning him a murmur from the people next to him. "She's my sister, related or not."

Down in the cell Raven swears into the mask, the lasso was not going to be pleasant.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Raven spots the somber faces of her friends and the stern faces of a few Leaguers, Wonder Woman, Superman, Hawkgirl and the Manhunter. She sees them argue again before Wonder Woman steps into the cell.

"So you want to use the rope on me?" Raven asks, sounding bored, as Diana closes the door.

"How do you know?" Diana is a bit surprised, since the lasso is still secured to her belt.

"This metal box is not keeping my mind back." Outside there are a few sudden grumbles about a need to strengthen the protection in the room or that they had underestimated the captive.

"We are, but it may hurt you." Raven sighs at the admission.

"Let's just get this over with. Just be careful, this may have some kind of backlash." She warns. Diana looks at her strangely for a moment, before unfastening the lasso. Wrapping one end around her own hand before she takes the other and ties it loosely around Raven's right wrist before she pulls it tight. Raven goes rigid at the sensation and her eyes are opened wide. Diana is mildly perplexed at this, but goes ahead with the questions.

"Raven?" And Raven nods at the question. "Raven, what where you doing in Gotham?"

"I…was seeking out, a new life; in a place where I would not be the only hero people feared or called a freak." She speaks as if she is asleep.

"Are you influencing any of the people you spent time with in Gotham by using of your powers?"

"No, I sought Batman's approval to operate in Gotham by proving myself to be trustworthy. Using such means…would defeat the…purpose."

"Can you do it?"

"Only through great and continuous…effort." Raven heaves for breath while Diana nods.

"Raven, who is Batman?" Raven eyes are suddenly locked onto Diana at the question.

"Won't tell you!" She hisses with great strain in her voice.

"Raven, who is he?!" Diana says with a little more force.

"Won't…tell…you." Raven says while sweat is beginning to appear on her forehead and black sparks begin to fly off her.

"WHO IS HE?!" Diana shouts at Raven who screams back at her.

"I WON'T TELL YOU!" The flesh beneath the lasso begins to smoke.

"Raven…!" Diana doest get the chance to ask again, as Raven suddenly stands up straight, splintering the chains holding her down, before anyone can react to the situation Raven violently breaks her remaining restrains as she charges Diana with a roar. Bowling into her Raven grabs hold of Diana's throat, forcing her backwards and through the wall behind her. Outside the group erupts, in shouts and curses. Diana is pushed through three walls before being smashed through a floor, dropping the pair into the vast training hall underneath the cellblock, surprising Big Barda, the Elongated Man, Hawk and his brother; Dove. Crashing to the ground Diana tries to get up, receiving four slashes across her face for it, making her cries out in pain at the sudden injury. The sound of her cry make the other heroes spring into action.

"You know, that looks like a girl after my head." Hawk's says while eyeing Raven.

"A demon gets you on?" Dove asks following behind him.

"All I'm saying is; she looks good."

"You're so messed up Hank." Raven has begun to pound Diana into the ground in blind fury, the room sounds with the thumps that vibrate through the floor.

"GET HER!" The Elongated Man yells as he races forwards, Raven notice them and gets on her feet, ready to fight them.

The remainder of the Gotham team is running after Batman, trusting him to know where they needed to go.

"What hell happened back there?" Cyborg asks without breaking stride.

"I have no idea!" It's the only answer Batman has at this point.

The group turns a few corners before entering the training hall they are almost forced to dodge a screaming projectile in red and white that is Hawk who collides with the wall next to them. Looking from where he came from, they first see Barda trying to get to her feet at the far end on of the room, the wall is marked after her impact with it. Over from where Hawk came from they see Raven pinning Wonder Woman to the wall, pressing her lower right arm to her throat. The Elongated Man is lying at her feet like a carpet someone carelessly had thrown there. Next to Raven is the pacifist Dove, trying to talk her down.

"Come on lady you don't need to do this." Raven ignores him, her eyes set on those of the half conscious Diana. "Ok, I can see you are angry, let me calm you down." Dove says while slowly extending a hand, reaching for the bare spot on her back, he barely makes contact before a strong hand grips his throat.

Raven stares at the man in her grasp for few seconds before making a motion that indicates she is blinking. Her eyes grow wide as she seems to realize what she is doing and drops Dove on the ground. She does much the same as she sees the damage she's done to Diana, a swollen lip, a black eye and four claw marks that ruins the Amazon princess's otherwise perfect features. She jumps back a little as she realizes that she is blocking her air supply, letting the half conscious Diana slump to the ground. Raven is shocked and confused but she tries to summon her healing powers to mend the princess, but to her frustration the blue energy won't come to her.

"Raven…who…is…?" Diana asks one final time before unconsciousness claims her.

"I can't tell you." Raven whispers back, before she fades out of sight, returning to the cell that previously contained her.


	16. Queens and Sorceresses

Raven spends an hour in the corner of her ruined cell before anyone else enters it. She spends the time in thought and in meditation, bringing her rage back under control, now that she is not near the one they call Dove she's realized how out of control it had gotten. She is certain that her actions are going to have consequences for her, why wouldn't they? She had pounded one of the founding members into the ground in while throwing a fit and also injured three other Leaguers that tried to stop her. Why did this have to happen now? After remaining in control of herself for so long it happens when she needed it the least?

"Raven?" She looks up to see Batman standing in the door, she hadn't noticed him enter.

"I…I failed." Is the only thing she says, before looking back onto the ground, Batman narrows his eyes before walking into the cell to stand in front of her.

"Look at me Raven." She doesn't respond. "Look at me!" He says before grabbing her arms and pulls her to her feet with surprising ease, making him quickly rethink her body's weight. They lock eyes for what seems to be hours to them before they break off. "When did you fail?" He asks.

"I…I lost control. For the first time in years, I lost control and again I almost killed someone because of it." Raven looks down then falls to her knees as he lets go, Batman remains motionless.

"How did the Lasso feel?" She asks after looking up at him in confusion, it wasn't the question she expected.

"At first it was…like holding onto an electrical fence, like I was loosing control of my muscles. When I resisted it felt like it was a high-voltage wire...it hurt."

"Yet you didn't answer her question." He notes.

"I refused to, but I felt I had to say something, so I told her the truth, that I wouldn't, because it would break the promise I made Nightwing."

"Do you know what Diana has told us of her Lasso?"

"I've read that she is supposedly the champion of the Greek gods, blessed in turn by them at her creation from the clay of Paradise Island. All of her weapons and armor are supposedly crafted by Hephaestus, the Olympian god of the forge. The Lasso is supposed to compel people in it to tell the truth." Raven rattles off the knowledge she read years ago out of curiosity.

"Yet you resisted its powers to a degree, as far as I know, that's a first. And under pain by the looks of it, how is your wrist?" He adds as an afterthought looking at the hand.

"Huh?" Raven looks down at her hands, sure a black circle of blistered skin surrounds her right wrist, carefully she touches the wound before pulling back, it stings now that she notices it. "It hurts."

"We should get you to the medical bay, if you can't heal it."

"No, I deserve the reminder of what I've done here." Batman rubs his eyes, getting a little tired of her guilt trip.

"You didn't fail Raven, you resisted J'onn and Diana's Lasso and still you haven't told them who I am."

"They already know, the Founders that is?"

"They do, the Thanagarian invasion, we had to make it from Metropolis to Gotham with an army looking for us in costume."

"So was this all a part of your test?" She asks wondering if it was him rather than Zatanna that had made the call to the League.

"It became that when the opportunity arose, it was not planned and the League was going to try under any circumstances. If you are offended by it, consider that I am now certain you won't tell anyone, anymore than other people that know will." This brings a very small smile to Raven's face, at least one thing today is positive.

"What about the other Founders?"

"The League is still in a meeting about what to do, some of them want to lock you away and some wants to recruit you."

"And why are you not there?" She asks as she gets up.

"They already know my opinion, their debate won't sway me. I agree you should at least be in reach of the League in case they need your help, and some of its members might be able to teach you something." Raven looks up at him, trying to see any indication if he is lying or just masking something to get her out of Gotham but she finds none.

"How are the injured?" She asks.

"They will be fine; Dove is a little sore around the throat, Barda wants a rematch and the Elongated Man just needs some time to pull himself together. And Hawk apparently wants to date you." Raven glares at him at the last mention.

"And Wonder Woman?"

"She wants a rematch as well, but it's her mother you have to worry about." He says with a slight smile. Raven looks up at him questioningly. "Queen Hippolyta finally chose to call her, after 4 months of not speaking, about 30 min ago. After seeing Diana's wounds she insisted to come here to inspect them personally. Apparently being a battle hardened Queen of a people with long warrior traditions doesn't exclude her from worrying about Diana." He smiles slightly at the notion, partially because he found the pampering amusing and knowing it would do nothing but keep Diana fighting even harder to prove her mother wrong.

"I guess I have to go apologize to them." She says.

"You can get your wrist tended to at the same time; they are both in the medical bay."

"Where are Nightwing and the others?" Raven is thinking of her friends who have yet to show.

"They are getting a tour of the satellite; we all agreed you probably needed some time alone, Jason headed back to Earth since he considers the two of you even at this point." Batman again shows to be a gentleman even when under the cowl by holding the door open for her.

Raven feels naked without her cloak, and the many look's she receives on the way makes it worse. Her prized clothing article had always been her shield to the outside world. Somehow Batman notices her discomfort even as he walks in front of her.

"They stare because you knocked Diana around." He says quietly without turning his head, Raven wonders how he noticed. The question occupies her mind the rest of the journey, before they pass thought a pair of metal sliding doors,, a sign next to them reads: Medical.

Raven swallows something when she looks over the 8 empty cots and the two occupied ones, there are three people inside; Hawk is lying in one bed busy ogling the two others. Wonder Woman is sitting on a bed near the entrance facing them, half of her is hidden behind another woman, Raven guesses that it is her mother; Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. She is dressed in a long, regal looking, light blue dress, from where Raven is standing she can see one exposed shoulder crowned by a golden broach that holds up the dress, the other is hidden by her long golden hair. In her left hand she is holding a staff with a gold owl perched on its top, both of her wrists are encircled in the tall golden wristbands that is the norm of her people. Right now the mother and daughter appear to be busy arguing, neither openly noticing Batman nor Raven entering.

"I'm fine mother." Raven could still clearly see the top of her claw marks on Diana's face; the swollen lip has faded a bit however.

"By the Gods Diana you look like you had another trip into Tartarus!" It sounds like they are going in a loop of an old argument without much steam in Hippolyta's voice.

"I'm fine." Diana states stubbornly.

"You are shaken." Hippolyta replies coldly.

"I am not! None of us knew she would react that way or that she would plow through the security systems in that room."

"Who…? Is the fiend who did this here?!" Raven has a bad feeling about this as Hippolyta says this; her feeling is confirmed as Diana points at her. Batman has moved to a cupboard and was getting the remedies needed to clean Ravens burnt wrist. Leaving Raven in the middle of the room, to face the Queen. She notes that Hippolyta has a very stern face; one Raven guesses she hides her emotions behind, like she herself usually does. Getting stared at by the Queen, Raven feels strangely unsure of herself, several parts of her wants to disappear yet she remains rooted to the ground. Hippolyta strides over to stand right in front of her, her eyes never leaving Raven but strangely enough it is not just anger Hippolyta radiates, it's an odd cocktail of puzzlement, hope and surprise and a dozen other emotions that come from her.

"You are the one who injured my daughter?" She asks sternly.

"I…I am." Raven stammers while looking down, not wanting to provoke an already agitated Queen.

"Yet the Dark One lets you walk freely?" Raven knows its Batman she is referring to.

"She resisted Princess Diana's Lasso." Batman replies outside Ravens field of vision.

"You resisted the will of the Gods?" The Queen asks in surprised and it tells as her façade falls for a second, too quick for Raven to make anything of her deeper feeling before it is rebuilt. "How?"

"I refused to answer the question….because it would break a promise I was made to keep." Raven answers quietly getting a raised eyebrow from Diana who sends a sterner look at Batman in realization of something.

"How? Demons have never been able to resist it, nor has anyone else." Hippolyta continues.

"But she did, under great pain from it." Diana says while walking over, taking hold of Ravens arm, showing off the burn mark there, Raven notes the black eye has also faded, and that Diana wasn't angry either, but her grip was very firm.

"I have seen many of the demon breeds that inhabit Tartarus, yet I have never seen one as you." Hippolyta says, apparently letting the Lasso matter slide for now, in favor of another question.

"I don't come from Tartarus." Raven replies.

"What Hell do you call home then?" She continues getting a spike of annoyance from Diana.

"None, my father was an inter-dimensional demon who raped my mother…who was human." Raven explains.

"An abomination." The word stings Raven, it was one of the things the ignorants in Jump City had called her and a little voice wonders if what she had also read about the Amazons were also true. She quickly receives aid from an unexpected side.

"One could say the same of children born of clay." Diana says coldly, Hippolyta glares at her. Raven bunches up her courage before the pair can begin another round of arguing.

"Queen Hippolyta, I…I apologize deeply for injuring your daughter it was not something I would have done normally." Raven decides it's best to keep it short, saying that a part of her took over would make her sound like a lunatic, like a criminal telling policemen that voices told her to do it. Hippolyta looks at her again with a surprised look in her eyes.

"A repenting demon?" She asks to herself.

"Raven has been fighting the good fight for years, defying her father's influence." Batman says while walking over with a piece of wet wool and a bandage, he lightly begins to clean the burn before wrapping the bandage around it. The queen still stares at her, making Raven wonder if she was about to have a pair of holes in her, it's that intense.

"Does the fiend have a name?" Hippolyta asks finally.

"Trigon." Both women's eyes widen at the name.

"Legend has it he haunted the world at the time of the ancient Titans and that his return would herald the undoing of the world." Diana recalls.

"I was born so he could do that, he came to Earth years ago, fortunately my friends and I were able to beat him back." Raven says solemnly.

"According to Nightwing it was you who killed him." Batman says with his back turned, Raven would have shot him a glare but doesn't dare turn away from the two in front of her. Raven wonders if he intends to have the women in front of her grill her for him, or if he is trying to put her in a better light.

"I would never have been able to without them." She remembers the stories her friends told her of what they had done while she was hiding in the ruins; which consisted of following Slade around, and entertaining her dad. Hippolyta seems to regard her with a different set of eyes now and her emotions generally seem to fade away.

"I see, I shall speak to you again." She says before turning to Diana who places her left fist over her heart and bows slightly at her mother's leaving.

"She's impressed." Batman notes from behind her.

"Please, you don't know my mother that well." Diana argues.

"I'm a good judge of character." He counters, Raven notes Diana rolling her eyes, much like herself when Richard or any of the other boys started bragging about something. Not knowing what to say to the woman she injured, Raven remains quiet.

"And for the record; don't use me for any of your tests like that again." She continues staring at his back but only gets a slight and silent nod from the man before she turning her attention back to Raven. "I expect a rematch in the near future you know." Diana says in an almost playful tone, noticing Ravens obvious discomfort.

"I hear the one called Barda wants one as well." Raven says, wondering if she would have to test fight the entire League.

"Hey, I'd like one as well!" Hawk shouts from his bed, having remained quiet until now.

"Don't let him get to you, he does that to every female in tights around, except Hawkgirl." Diana assures, Raven raises an eyebrow. "She chased him over most of the station after he walked in on her in the shower. She's been growling at him ever since."

"Doesn't stop him trying though." Dove says while stepping into the infirmary carrying a burger wrapped in paper. "Catch!" He calls before tossing the burger like a football to Hawk, who catches it in one hand before unraveling the paper.

"Aww man, Don you got me a veggi burger!" He complains after looking under the salad leaves.

"Healthier than those you usually order." Dove counters.

"You're hopeless." Hawk sighs before chewing down on the burger anyways. Raven is reminded of the daily arguments of two certain Titans she knows; actually the pair reminds her of the pair in surprisingly many ways. Diana returns to the conversation, seeing the pair descending into their usual arguments shortly.

"Anyways, Barda is not used to getting swatted away. Even less than I am." Diana says with a hint of mirth, Raven is unsure why the woman seems so happy, an hour ago she was being beaten into the ground and now sports the scars.

"Do those hurt?" Raven decides to ask.

"Not really, my natural regeneration will have healed it by tomorrow." Diana replies while stroking the already pinking scars.

"You seem unusually happy that you have them?"

"Call it something I admired in my sisters, some carry scars from the time when they fought for their freedom, I won't ever get any like them."

"Unlike some of us." Batman grumbles behind Raven, both women guesses that the man's body is crisscrossed in scars from his career. Diana looks at his back with an almost dreamy look in her eyes, Raven sees her affection towards him as clearly as she used to see Starfire's towards Nightwing. Somehow it doesn't surprise her to see it, she had read plenty from the junk magazines in the Tower of how Diana and Superman were the natural superhero couple, but like in the Tower, here the ideal woman is hovering over the dark obsessive man. "If you will excuse me, I will go see if the others are done arguing." With that he leaves the room.

"So what did you vote?" Raven braves the subject of her own future.

"Personally I think we could use one as you, from what I hear, you could be quite formidable, with a little counseling." In the council room in Ravens mind, her pink clad emotion is jumping about in joy, which doesn't help her current dominant emotion in grey.

"Well that only leaves the rest of them."

"If I know them correctly, it will be Shayera and John that's arguing against you. Since you have already convinced Batman, John will be trying to persuade Superman to agree with him that magicians can't be trusted; with Zatanna's actions he's got the fuel to sway him. Shayera will be leaning on the 'can't be read' argument, she is still trying to clean herself off from the Thanagarian Invasion."

"Seems you already know the outcome." Raven notes.

"Well, it will all depend on J'onn whom none of us can read and Flash who votes with his heart, Superman will listen to all arguments before making a decision. J'onn is intrigued by what he saw in your head by the way, it confused him that he picked up thoughts from the ghosts in the city he walked in, he's said it was like walking around a real city."

"In a way it is. But it's not really a subject I care to talk about much in a crowded room; it might give the wrong impression." She says while nodding that the pair behind Diana, Hawk was busy rubbing Doves head with his knuckles, while holding his head under his other arm.

"I see, I hope you will speak of it under more private circumstances then."

"What is it with those two?" Raven asks, deciding to change the subject to the pair of men.

"They are brothers and pretty much opposite in every way. They say they are the representatives of Order and Chaos, basically it boils down to Hawk wanting to fight a lot and Dove is a pacifist."

"Down in the gym, when I grabbed Dove, I felt myself calmed immeasurably by that alone."

"It's what he does, he once stopped one of Ares' war machines just by standing still, he was the only one who understood it was fueled by anger and violence." Diana remembers that even she was fueling the thing back then.

"_Diana, would you and Raven please report to conference room Beta Seven."_ A voice sounds over the speaker system; Diana knows the voice belongs to Mr. Terrific.

"Guess this is it." Raven says solemnly, not looking towards the meeting.

"Look at it this way, if they wanted to lock you up, they wouldn't bother calling." Diana says sounding cheerful.

Raven is rarely intimidated, it's a fact to anyone who knows her, but without her cloak and against the seven people facing her across the table, this is one of those rare occasions where she is but she tries to not let it show. Superman coughs dryly into his hand, announcing he is talking first.

"First of all, apology is in order on behalf of the Justice League, as we unjustly assaulted and incarcerated you on false grounds." Raven nods, silently accepting the apology. Strangely she is having trouble figuring out what she should do with her arms as their usual cover is missing. "We would also like to assure you that the matter of Zatanna's actions will be looked into." Somehow it pleased Raven's vindictive side that Zatanna is in a pickle now, but she is keeping a close eye on that aspect of herself. "On another matter, we have no way of discerning your true nature or your intentions, other than your word. This is an unusual situation for us, considering the means we usually have at our disposal. J'onn was unable to read your mind and you shown to be able to resist Wonder Woman's Lasso, that you were able to makes us unsure if it was true what you said while under its influence." He say's sternly indicating that he was one of the people it annoyed, Raven couldn't really blame him. "We also agree you are obviously powerful, as your display earlier attests. Where we don't agree is to what to do. As you undoubtedly know by now, you have the support of Batman and Wonder Woman." Superman pauses before continuing, Raven notes with a short glaze that Hawkgirl and Green Lantern are keeping a steady eye on her. "So on behalf the Justice League I would like to extend you this offer: a special trial member status of the League, where you will be subordinate to one founder at a time so we have a chance to evaluate your capabilities and motives. This may be speeded up if the situation arises. If you perform satisfactory you can move up to full membership or choose to be put on the reserve's list. We understand if you need some time to think about this."

Raven is dumbstruck by the offer to recruit her, something she had convinced herself would never happen. After running from them years ago, she had always feared that one day they would come to Jump City looking for her, but they never did for some reason. Apart of her wants to accept at once, the part of her that wants to gain their acceptance as well so she could stop dreading the League. Another side is urging her to throw the offer in their faces for causing her so much grief in the past and she was actually a little disappointed that the old situation didn't come up. But these are just small parts in comparison to the general chaos in her head. She needs a clear head to think about this.

"I will need to think about this, is there somewhere quiet around here?" It was the first thing she said to the assembled heroes.

"The observatory and the trophy hall on the top deck are usually quiet." J'onn adds, Raven guesses he is one of the frequent visitors there.

"Contact one of us when you have made your decision." Superman says with a slight smile. Raven nods before getting out of her seat and heads towards the door that slides open before she walks out, and almost collides with an overweight African-American woman with short hair in a blue skirt and jacket. Muttering an apology Raven quickly disappears down the corridors, unaware of the odd stare Amanda Waller sends after her. Batman clears his throat from inside the meeting room, which brings Amanda's attention back to them.

"So what can we do for you today Miss Waller?" Superman asks as she enters the room.

"Just the usual checkup Superman." Amanda replies calmly, unlike Raven she wasn't at all intimidated by the group, taking the same seat Raven had been occupying, noting it was warmer than was comfortable. "I see you have a new face up here."

"She has been given the offer, but has yet to accept." Batman says, knowing Waller was going to ask who it was, if she didn't know already. As a liaison between the League and the American Government it is her job to keep tabs on who is in the League and who isn't.

"She must be new; I don't remember any red-skinned meta-humans with four eyes."

"You know of the Teen Titans." It isn't a question; Waller has studied virtually every known and unknown group of superheroes in depth for the eventuality that she had to deal with them in one form or another.

"Of course, the first team disbanded four years ago to go their separate ways. Robin eventually came back to Gotham as Nightwing, one of them moved to Metropolis to study, the green one returned to the Doom Patrol to join his adoptive parents, the alien princess returned home and the mystic remained in Jump City until about a year ago where she disappeared."

"That was her, the mystic." Diana adds, drawing Amanda's attention onto the scars.

"Hm…What happened to you?"

"Raven did." Diana replies, with a slight smile.

An hour later Raven is peacefully floating a few feet off the ground in the observatory, J'onn was right, it is quiet up here. Sure she has felt the hyperactive emotions of the Flash a few times as he zoomed in and out of the room, she guesses he is as impatient as Kid Flash used to be. Finally she feels back in control of herself, enough to heal the last of her wounds and to cast the transformation spell. But she decides that with her current state of undress, it will be better to remain as she is, it will keep people's focus on something else. Opening her eyes she has the full view of deep space, it is an amazing sight and it makes Raven think of her alien friend who they have yet to question Blackfire about. Staring into space a grumbling from her belly brings her back, deciding she better see if the cantina here serves anything decent. Turning her eyes away from the view she turns to walk around the massive telescope that dominates most of the room, near the door she spots something lying in a chair with a white note on it.

"_Keep it, until we can get you a new one."_ It reads, written in sharp letters.

Picking the article up, Raven blinks a few times in surprise; it is one of Batman's older capes. She notes it is heavy, compared to her own, but as it has functions other than a fashion statement it is not entirely surprising. Raven smiles inwardly, Beastboy is going to faint if he finds out. Opening a small portal, she retrieves the broach from her own tattered cloak, she instantly feels a lot better when she wraps the cape around her.

"I'll have to thank him later." She says quietly before heading out to find the cantina.

The walk allows her time to think about the offer she had yet to really consider. Sure she would have to take orders from at least two people that looked at her funny, and Metropolis was not a city she felt like she would fit into. In her mind it sounded like it was like a white room, were she was a lonely black spot. And she had a feeling the Flash was going to be grinding on her nerves sooner rather than later, he had the same aura of immaturity she usually associated with Beastboy. On the up side they are right, there are League members she could learn something from and making peace with the League was one of the things she had wanted to do ever since Trigon's fall. On the other hand, committing herself to the League would remove herself from Gotham, where she would really like to stay. She can't make up her mind about this; she needs to talk to someone. At the thought of someone she steps though a pair of sliding doors and into the cantina.

Looking into the room, she wishes silently she still had a hood as the entire room, filled with staff members and heroes, falls silent and stares at her. A second passes before a green elephant morphs into shape in the middle of the room.

"All right people, the elephant is over here." Raven smiles, Garfield has evolved as she can't remember him ever talking while in animal form before. At his words the room actually turns their attentions towards him; an unspoken command seems to have passed through them all that they were staring. Raven walks over towards him, as he changes back, and sits down at the table were the rest of her friends are seated.

"Thanks for the save Gar." Raven says sincerely, Nightwing and Robin are sending her strange looks.

"Is that..?" Robin asks

"He let me borrow this one till I can repair my own." She cuts him off, it causes Nightwing, Cyborg and Beastboy to almost choke on their food. Unfortunately Beastboy doesn't have the self-restraint the others have.

"You're wearing one of HIS capes!?" He almost shouts; again drawing the room's attention to them, Raven glares at him.

"Thanks Gar." She grumbles, Beastboy quickly understands what his little outburst has caused and shrinks. "So how was your tour?" She asks deciding a subject change was needed.

"Well I was more of a walk, since Cyborg and Steel, our guide, ended up discussing microchips and alloys." Robin quips.

"Can't two guys discuss their common interest?" Cyborg asks after putting down his sandwich.

"It only got better when you mentioned you live in Metropolis." Nightwing adds.

"Yeah, turns out he has his factory there, the Steelworks." Cyborg says sheepishly, it was one of the places he would like to visit during his education.

"I will be right back, I need some food." Raven says before heading up to the buffet, helping herself to a slice of ham, peas and a slice of bread. She is a bit annoyed when she finds out she will have to make do with plastic utensils. Sitting down again at the table, Nightwing finally asks what has been on their minds since they heard the loudspeakers calling her and Diana to a meeting room.

"So what did the League want?" Raven notes that they all lean a little closer.

"They wanted to apologies for attacking me." Cyborg and Beastboy leans back again, apparently satisfied, unlike the two other birds, who just leans a little closer. "And they offered me a special trial membership." Robin blinks several times behind his mask. Nightwing's jaw drops to the table surface. Cyborg coughs as he gets the water he is drinking down the wrong throat. Beastboy appears petrified. "They couldn't agree if I am good or bad, so they are going to have me jump through hoops for them, if I accept." They seems to recover after this, Robin tries to knock Cyborg on the back, which doesn't do much good.

"Well saying they did a 360 should be accurate." Robin mutters.

"What? From group beatings and torturous interrogations to apologies and club cards? I'd say they are more 315, they want to keep tabs on me now." She replies before stuffing a piece of ham in her mouth.

"I can't believe you're joining the League." Beastboy says.

"I haven't said yes, yet." Beastboy's eyes grow a bit wider, he would have said yes without a second thought.

"You have reservations?" Cyborg asks now that his throat is clear.

"I do, for one thing they turned me down before I met any of you, even attacked me. For another it will take me out of Gotham, where I want to be. I wasn't lying when I said why I was in Gotham."

"You know only a very small group actually lives on the station?" Nightwing asks.

"They told me I will be somewhat of a special case." The looks on their faces prompts her to explain. "If I agree, I will be subordinate to each of the founders for a period of time, meaning I will literally be following them around, one after another till they know enough to either approve or not."

"And some of them are giving you the evil eye already?" Cyborg asks.

"Hawkgirl and Green Lantern are the worst at hiding it at least."

"I think you should accept Rae, it's a golden opportunity to make peace with the League. You already have the most suspicious of the founders on your side." Nightwing says after a moment's thought.

"Am I crowding your cave?" Raven asks in an almost teasing tone.

"No, of course not Rae, higher powers know Gotham needs help. But wouldn't getting the green light from the League as well as from Batman help assure you that you are not a bad guy?" Raven look at him for a moment before answering.

"I guess you're right. I just never thought about getting a chance with the League, since Batman was the only who helped me back then." The table falls quiet as they resume their meals, till Beastboy asks.

"Soo, what's with the different look?" It is the best way he can ask without probably angering her.

"Malchior's parting gift, this is how I look now, a human in a demon shell. But he didn't expect me to get a power boost out of it."

"So was the other you an illusion?" Nightwing asks, a bit worried she hadn't told him.

"No, it took me half a year to learn to change back, in my other form I am as I used to be."

"So there's no difference between the old you and the uhh..?" Robin tries to formulate that.

"No, except it is a lie, it's a form I change into and something others can force me out of, if I die this is what will be buried." Nightwing and the other Titans knows this is taking an emotional toll on her, admitting she looks like a monster while pretending to just be human. Nightwing does what he can; he takes hold of her hand with his own.

"It's still you Rae, no matter how you look, we are still your friends." The two others nod at her as well. Raven looks at them with for a moment before doing something none of them expects, she grabs Nightwing with one arm and Beastboy with the other, as they are seated next to her, in a massive hug that leaves both of them blue in the face.

"You have no idea how much that means to me." She says quietly still squeezing the pair.

"Rae…hurts…" Beastboy manages; she lets up the pressure in surprise.

"Sorry, I guess I know how it feels to be Star." Raven admits sheepishly, she didn't know her own strength in this form.

"So will you join them?" Robin asks, seeing as Nightwing is still catching his breath, Raven thinks for a moment.

"Yes, I think will, Nightwing is right. I have been at odds with the League for too long and now they extend their hand to me. I have no reason to turn them down now." She says while letting go.

"Touching, but you will never pass." A sour female voice speaks behind Raven, she sighs while the others send the speaker angry looks.

"What do you want Zatanna?" Raven asks in a tired voice without turning.

"You, in a cell or in hell; where you belong." Raven's glare at the others is enough to keep them quiet, this was her fight.

"And why do I belong in a cell?" She asks.

"You are a monster and a manipulator; and you don't deserve to walk free!" Zatanna hisses, Raven finally stands up to face her, the others back a way guessing Zatanna is one poorly chosen word from an extended stay in a medical ward if not an early grave. Raven stares at her for a moment before speaking.

"I don't want to fight you Zatanna." She says in the same tired voice before turning away and sitting down again. It only seems to anger Zatanna beyond the point of reason.

"Face me, you freak!" The others note a slight twitch in Ravens eyes as she looks down on the remaining peas, the word stung.

"No." Is Raven's only reply to the insult, internally she was ignoring the voice of her father telling her to rip Zatanna's throat out.

"I said face me!" Zatanna yell's, getting the entire rooms attention before she blasts Raven out of her seat and into the far wall making it dent at the impact. Raven groggily picks herself off the floor but not doing anything that appears aggressive. Zatanna fumes while powering up another spell.

"ZATANNA!" An deep voice roars through the room, causing everyone to look to the entrance seeing the Dark Knight and the rest of the founders behind him, all wearing shocked expressions, like those of Robin and Nightwing. "What are you doing?" He asks when the steaming sorceress turns to face him.

"I'm trying to get her to lift the spell she has you under!" Her words make some of the staff look nervously at each other, as if it was something that could be seen.

"Can you prove she is using such a spell?" Batman asks. Zatanna seems to fumble for her words, as not knowing how to prove her claim.

"I've got a different idea." Diana says before unhooking her lasso, Zatanna's eyes go wide a second too late before she finds it pulled close around her.

"You can do this to me!" Diana smiles when Zatanna's words come out truthfully, it just sounded wrong to the others, Zatanna included.

"Is Raven really using mind control?" Diana asks.

"No…" Zatanna starts to tremble a little, Diana pushes on.

"Why did you tell us that then?" Zatanna's eyes seem to fill with water.

"Because I'm scared she will replace me!" She shouts at them getting a mixed looks shared between the groups members. To those that know her, it's a shock she would resort to such means out of jealousy of someone that wasn't even colleague. Diana however just stares at her coldly.

"Was this always the case?" She also remembers the day Zatanna ordered them to attack a young girl who came to them for help.

"No, when we first met her, I truly believed she was what I said she was. I kept track of her, noted that she proved me wrong with almost every story written in the papers. I waited for her to fall, but she didn't. When she appeared in Gotham I thought she had come to replace me, when I attacked her on the docks I thought I had all the fuel I needed." She trails off sounding too much like a criminal from a TV show.

Batman walks into the room to stand before the crumpling sorceress before he reaches out and retrieves something from her pocket. Zatanna looks up to see him holding a small communicator, her line to the League. She looks down on the ground in defeat as he breaks it between his fingers, signaling her unspoken and very public dismissal from the League. "Get her out of here." Batman says with clenched teeth before he turns away and walks out of the room. Green Lantern does his part and scoops the woman up in a green bowl before escorting her out.

Nightwing walks over to Raven who is leaning against the wall with one hand. "You ok?"

"Just dazed, it was the same spell she threw at me at the docks. Right now I'm glad that I'm more resilient in this form." She says, shaking her head once in an attempt to clear the spots from her eyes.

"Are you sure, you look a little off?" Nightwing asks again.

"I'm…fine…" She says before collapsing.


	17. Interrogation

"How is she?" Nightwing asks Batman as he checks Raven's charts, she has been unconscious for 6 hours now and it is worrying the Gotham team, as well as a few Leaguers, most of League was by now was aware of the event in the cantina. The woman in question is floating a few inches above the bed she was supposed to be lying in; it took some time for Nightwing and the others to explain that it was normal for her to do that and that it was a good sign that her mind was repairing the damage.

"Unconscious but stable." Batman repeats what has been the case for the last couple of hours. "She didn't even defend herself?" He asks again.

"No, Zatanna just came over and started verbally abusing her. Rae tried to ignore her but it just seemed to anger Zatanna, it seemed to anger her even more that Rae turned her back to her." Batman shakes his head, not quite wanting to believe it. "I never thought Zee would stoop to something like this?"

"Neither did I, I thought I knew her. Apparently I don't know her well enough." Nightwing can see it, Bruce is taking this heavily, Zatanna is the closest thing to a childhood friend as he has and had been since her father had taught him the craft of escapology and sleight of hand.

"Why do you think she did it?" Nightwing asks, trying to move the man's mind to the place it worked best.

"Like she said, she feared she was going to be replaced. If she meant in the League or in Gotham, I'm not sure." Nightwing thinks about it for a moment.

"I don't get it; she never seemed to treat Etrigan or Jason this way."

"He's a man." Batman says flatly, Nightwing almost slaps himself for that one and hopes it really isn't anything like what his thoughts are leading him. He knows Zatanna had a crush on Bruce once, if she still aimed to rekindle that flame, Raven would have been seen a firefighter with a hose waiting for that spark. But he doesn't know which way Raven bends in the matter of love, heck he doesn't even know if Raven 'does' love these days. Back with the Titans she would have stabbed the notion with a 'No, it will mess up my control.', but since her return she has been letting more emotion out. But the thought of Bruce and Raven together makes Richard want to ask the man next to him to knock him out.

"It could be you as well, you know." Nightwing sighs, he had stared too long and Batman had walked the same road as him, only faster. Batman's mention again sends Nightwing's brain cells racing along thoughts he shouldn't be thinking, not right now anyways.

"Thank you, but it's not really a subject we should be talking about, not around her anyways." Batman gives him a knowing smile, somehow telling him he was not done poking him with this. A nurse walks in to check up on the two injured, Raven and Hawk, who had been told if Raven found him staring she would most likely be very unpleasant.

"Come on, we have some Tamaranians we need to interrogate." Nightwing looks up, in one way he didn't want to go, but they had business to attend to, so he follows him out. "You like her." Batman says while out in the hallways.

"She is one of my closest friends, of course I like her." Nightwing decides to play dumb for once, it was keeping Bruce's mind off Zatanna.

"It's not a shame to say you like her more than that." Batman teases.

"All right I admit it; I would not be immune to her if she made the advance. But I won't risk a friendship I treasure deeply by not thinking with my head." It was true, besides he wasn't sure how he would act if she rejected him.

"And the fact she doesn't look normal doesn't bother you?"

"No it doesn't, I was attracted to an orange skinned princess from another planet, grey and red doesn't matter, but it's not her looks I like the most about Rae, it's her eyes, the ones she used to have, you could imagine seeing everything she hid from us in them. Also it doesn't hurt I rarely have to explain anything to her, it might actually be opposite on occasion."

"Unlike the princess." Batman mentions, knowing from the files he had how seemingly insignificant things could confuse Starfire, like the Tower Gamestation and Cyborg's advanced waffle iron.

"Star had the looks any teenage boy would fall for, but I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with her if she remained as seemingly naïve as she acted, not anymore. Back then I suppose Raven was happy to let Starfire soak up most of the stares, of course she did attract a few creeps anyways."

"If you had to, which would you choose?"

"That's not fair, that's like choosing between the sun and moon. But to answer your question, I wouldn't choose either, as it would break the heart of the other. It's hypothetical anyways, Star is not here and I for one won't say Raven might bend in odd directions, and she'd kill me if she heard me say that." Nightwing says to the chuckling man next to him.

"I think I've taken up some of Robins bad habits, but you know you are reaching for the highest hanging fruit on the tree while pretending to admire the flowers at the roots."

"I think I know how you figure all of Eddies riddles out now when you pull up stuff like that." Batman just smiles slyly. "Besides you can't be completely high and mighty with Selena around." The smile drops off his face like it weighed a ton.

"It was an…interesting relationship." He says politely acknowledges the attraction was there.

"After grilling me about my friends, I am not letting you go that easily." Nightwing says with a grin, it was after all a poorly kept secret that there was something between the Bat and the Cat.

"I am afraid you have to." Batman says with a smile as the pair enters the hall with the teleporter pads that according to local legend still works.

"I'll get you later." Nightwing promises his mentor as they step up on the pads. Soon the pair is engulfed in blue light before disappearing.

"How old are you?" Green Lantern asks one of the Tamaranian females Nightwing notes were amongst the group that wasn't knocked out during the battle. John is speaking through his ring that can translate just about all languages into something the wearer can understand and translate his own words to others the same way.

Nightwing and Batman quickly found themselves out of the loop on Earth, as neither of them speaks tamaranese, besides Green Lantern, Raven, J'onn and Starfire, Nightwing knows no one who does, besides Blackfire, who is currently sweating till they are done questioning her army and they weren't going to risk skin contact with the inhumanly strong aliens. Etrigan is with them here as it still seems to amuse him when they had to drag out the more stubborn aliens, Cyborg and Beastboy are keeping guard as well, and Robin had been returned to Gotham as he still has school to attend to. Currently Etrigans presence is appreciated as there weren't enough cells to give each Tamaranian an individual cell, quite the contrary, Blackfire is the only one who's alone, everyone else is sharing one with at least four others. There are a few in special hospital cells, they were mostly those Beastboy had bitten. On the plus side, the energy dampeners in the cells seem to be working as none had managed to escape.

"How old are you?" John tries again.

"14 cycles around the star you call Vega." John is surprised at this; Tamaran has a yearly cycle almost the same as Earth's, but he doesn't let it show.

"Isn't that a little young to be shipped off for war?"

"It was, years ago, many things changed when Empress Blackfire ascended the throne." The girl replies.

"You didn't have any choice?"

"None above the age of 10 has anymore."

"Did you have any combat experience before you came here?" John continues.

"I was with the assault on Okaara and the civil war on my home world before that." John nods at this, there were rumors in the Green Lantern Corps that there had been a general state of anarchy in the Vegan star system, but it was off-limits to them due to an ancient agreement between the Guardians, his superiors, and certain factions within the Vegan system.

"Do you know why you were sent here?"

"I know only that we were only told that we were here to retrieve a human called Robin. The Empress decided to join us at the last moment before we departed, wishing to observe us up close as she said."

"Right. Thank you for your cooperation." John sighs, the last 25 had been more or less the same, none of them seemed to know why Blackfire wanted Robin and that most of them were underage on Earth, which he suspected was deliberate decision.

_The Watchtower:_

"So this is her?" A red headed Amazon with a ponytail that almost reaches the floor asks as she walks over to the floating half-demon in the infirmary. She is dressed in a white sleeveless leotard with dark green linings that leaves her legs and shoulders exposed, most of her arms and legs are covered by a dark green satin-like fabric that clings to her. Unlike other Amazons she doesn't wear the tall bracelets, mainly because she is from a little know and almost extinct tribe that didn't follow the same directions during the events that caused the Themyscirans to wear them.

"It is, Artemis." Hippolyta says with an slightly annoyed tone in her voice which she always ended up using around this Bana-Mighdall, since the red-head rarely bothered showing her the reverence that her station usually granted her from her other Sisters. The remains of Artemis' people had long regarded their island dwelling sisters as having grown soft in their divinely blessed isolation, while they themselves had hid in Africa's vast deserts, having to fight off marauders and slave traders over the millennia they lived there. Their own hardiness is something Artemis never fails to point out, since she is the second greatest warrior on the island, Diana being the first. But the state is that the Bana-Mighdall living on the island will not acknowledge amongst their own ranks that they are in fact ruled by their 'softer' and much older sisters.

"It's is odd, I can smell vast demonic powers in it, but there's a definite scent of humanity in her as well." Artemis had acquired a talent of tracking demons as she had died and confined to the underworld once. "The princess must be growing soft to get beaten by this."

"I wouldn't say that till you see what she can do Artemis." Diana says as she appears behind them.

"I see you finally received your scars princess." Artemis says mockingly, being one of the few on the island who knew of Diana's hidden desires, having sparred with Diana a lot. The scars are almost gone now, only thin pink lines remain, in an hour or so they will be gone completely.

"Only for a time. What are you doing off the island?" Diana continues.

"I brought her here to examine the one who wounded you. But she would be more informative if she was not sleeping." Hippolyta replies, well aware of the good hearted rivalry between her daughter and the redhead.

"A coward struck her from behind, she did not try retaliating even after she got to her feet at first." Diana explains.

"Unlike her interaction with you." Hippolyta replies, getting a small sight out of Diana. She hates it when her mother is being just that when she is around others, especially Artemis who just smirking at them while Diana resorts to glaring at her mother.

"You do realize I have had worse than this?" She asks.

"None quite so visible and I would hate to have Aphrodite's blessing suddenly fade from you."

"Aphrodite's sees beauty in all things mother." Diana argues. Unnoticed by the arguing pair and the amused Artemis, Raven returns to the world of consciousness, realizing she is not alone she lets her half open eyes look to one side, spotting Artemis before recognizing the mother and daughter's voices.

"I would mention that hospitals are usually the wrong place to argue." She says in her monotone voice before sitting up, causing both women to shut up before facing her.

"So it lives." Artemis says while crossing her arms, Raven sighs not bothering to face the redhead.

"Can I ask who and why she is here?"

"Artemis of Bana-Mighdall is here as my advisor on matters… demonic." Hippolyta says sternly.

"Do I have to fight her as well?" Raven is getting annoyed by the growing line of people that want to test and prod her; she silently curses Malchior for the millionth time.

"I thought your kind liked it that way?" Artemis asks in a knowing tone, Raven decides to keep ignoring her; the woman is apparently trying to coax her into a fight. Deciding it is best to call these people by their alter ego's until given permission to otherwise, she figures it is best to turn the conversation to another matter.

"Wonder Woman, do you need to assemble the other founders to hear my decision about the League's offer?"

"Formally I do, but Green Lantern, Batman and J'onn are on Earth interrogating the Tamaranians, and Superman is currently in civilian. But if we can get hold of J'onn we can hear your decision informally." Diana says, ignoring the stares her mother is sending her.

"Diana, tell me you are not considering inducting her into this League of yours?" Hippolyta asks in near-disbelief, which Raven finds odd because her emotions seem to say her actual opinion is not revulsion but an odd mix of small fears and worries, but it seems to fool Diana.

"We see a lot of potential in her, potential that can help a great many people. But some amongst the founders believe as you, that we cannot trust her. But if she truly is a monster you obviously think she is, would you let her wander around unsupervised?" Diana asks before turning, leaving the room, Raven tries to remain indifferent as the Queen faces her.

"Know this, harm my daughter again and you will regret it." She warns before making her way out followed by Artemis who also appears to buy the Queens act.

"I already regret hurting her." Raven whispers at her back, not knowing Hippolyta actually hears her. Again Raven wonders why Hippolyta was emitting such strange emotions that conflicted with what she is saying.

_Hall of Justice_

"It's strange being here." Batman says looking up from some gizmo he is putting together, looking at his legal ward on the other side of the table, who is studying a blueprint over a soon to be build shuttle, the Javelin 6.

"You mean having around a hundred people upstairs waiting to be interrogated and you aren't there." Nightwing says, knowing it was usually Batman they sent to ask questions.

"Yes, I guess I'm letting my reputation do too much of my work."

"Don't sweat it, you can still be called up in case they find a hard case. Or like those who saw you in the sewer."

"It reminds me, we need to take a shower, or Alfred will walk out on us." Nightwing smiles at Batman's mention of the old man. "Did you know Raven spoke taramanese?"

"She once said she spoke 7 languages, two of them were dead, I'm not surprised if she has acquired a few more. Cyborg at least tried Starfire's course once, but I'm not sure if he completed it or if he lost it with the chip he was trying out at the time. Raven and Star spent a lot of 'girl-time' together the last years, so I guess she picked it up from there."

"You didn't attend?" Batman asks.

"I had other things to do at the time." Batman grumbles behind him, causing Nightwing to turn, wondering if he had done something wrong.

"I hate when he does that too quickly. It's J'onn, Raven has made her decision."

"Ok before I announce it, I have something I'd like to say first. In the past I used to live in fear of the League, over the years the fear turned into something else; anger. It caused me to steer clear of any member of the League even if I might have needed their aid. I want to thank you for at least giving me the chance to mend fences with you. So I accept your offer of a trial membership." In front of her, Diana smiles along with the Flash, while Hawkgirl tries to remain indifferent. In a busy office in Metropolis, a large man with glasses smiles inwardly. In the Hall of Justice a man in black lets on a small smile, as his prediction comes true, another man grunts before heading back for more interrogation and lastly a Martian looks forwards to the times ahead.

"Well on behalf of the Justice League, welcome Raven." Diana smiles at her.

"Thank you, so when do I start?" Diana's smile doesn't fade the second she remains silent.

"We haven't worked out the fine details yet, but Batman already wants you down in the Hall since you're one of the few that can speak tamaranese." Diana explains. "Come I'll walk you to the pads."

_Hall of Justice:_

30 minutes later Raven has observed how the 'two John's' went about the questions, which she notes is very 'by the book'. They hand her a pen and a blank block of paper along with a small note as to which questions the League wants answers to, before showing her the room she will be asking them in. She has requested a cup of tea and some bread with blueberry jam, since she hasn't anything to eat in a while now. Right now she is waiting in the white walled room with the one-way window to her right and the aluminum furniture, three chairs and a table, for her first one. She can feel there are three people observing her through the glass, one of them is definitely Nightwing, one with an almost detached emotional pattern who she guesses is Batman and one who exhibits a low key interest but is otherwise unreadable. The first Tamaranian enters from the door behind her, she closes her eyes waiting for the Tamaranian to take a seat, it is already nervous, bordering on fear. The Tamaranian in front of her definitely becomes scared as Raven opens her eyes.

_"Trigon!"_ She whispers, Raven smiles inwardly, I was apparently not only Starfire that had heard of the legend.

_"His daughter actually."_ Raven answers before continuing._ "The League has some questions they want answers to."_ She picks up the piece of bread, noticing the alien is staring at it and the cup of tea. _"If you cooperate, you won't end up like the last one."_ She says in an casual tone before taking a bite, noting how the Tamaranians eyes go wide.

On the other side of the glass, Nightwing is stifling a laugh; Batman is smirking while J'onn looks on with even more interest. Even if the two men could not understand what they were saying, they understood the meaning. The alien had already been scared before Raven seemingly threatened her with a piece of bread and jam; J'onn decides to try a different approach when he begins again.

_"So, lest begin with how old you are?"_ Raven asks after brushing the crumbs out of the corner of her mouth.

_"I…I am 16 rotations of Tamaran around Vega."_ She stammers back. Raven has the pen dance on its own, writing down everything in English.

_"Isn't that young for your planet to send you to a real fight?"_

_"Since Empress Blackfire took the throne, none above the age of 10 has a say in the matter. I know there were 10 year-olds being sent to Okaara when Blackfire ordered it captured."_ Starfire had spoken a few times about her short stay on the Planet of Warlords, it was, according to Starfire, a custom for her people to send their young there to train, the young Starfire didn't like it since most of it was below ground.

_"Why did Blackfire want Okaara?"_

_"She wished to improve the training there, the Warlords refused to change their ways."_ Raven nods, knowing the 'Empress' was not the kind of person who liked being denied.

_"Why does Blackfire pick you so young? From what I know, your people only go to Okaara to be able to defend yourselves in case of invasion."_ It was what Star had told her, Tamaranians were happy with staying on their planet which was why they weren't seen often outside the Vega system.

_"She has claimed there are threats against Tamaran so that we needed a larger standing army. We all believed her, after the civil war, much of Tamaran was in ruins. But now three cycles later we hear rumors that she has her heart set on conquest. But we can do nothing, if any resist her demands they are first threatened, if they do not give in they are slain, publicly."_ That would be like Blackfire, if Raven has any knowledge of her.

_"Do you know why she ordered you here to Earth?"_

_"We were told we were to retrieve a human called Robin, no one asked why."_

_"Did she tell you anything about him or what you might be facing here?"_

_"She told us our training would be more than sufficient in dealing with the… 'vermin' she said lived here."_ Raven stares at her, faking she is taken offence to the remark, before moving on a theory they've had.

_"Do you have any knowledge of Blackfire's sister?"_

_"We have been forbidden to ever speak of her, but there are rumors Blackfire keeps her prisoner in the palace. Why do you ask?"_ Raven decides to leave out that it is deeply personal for herself and her friends to know.

_"Starfire lived on Earth for a number of years; here she was a great hero of the city she lived in. We know she went home four years ago, we learned recently she never went home to what she told us she did it for. I have no further questions for you."_ Raven walks through the glass plated wall to hand over the notes to Batman, leaving the young female to be led back to her cell by Etrigan.

"Nice touch with the jam Rae." Nightwing says as Batman reads the piece of paper.

"Noticed she stared at it, guessed my appearance would make her think it was someone's remains." Raven shrugs. John appears down the hallway with a piece of paper as well, which he also hands over to Batman.

"They are all saying the same thing; no one knows exactly why Blackfire wants Robin and that most of them are under aged, both by Guardian standards and Earth." He sighs; it was a monotonous task to do this.

"The conscripts are blindly following orders, and the guards follow the rulers wherever they go. We are running in circles with this." Batman agrees; they were just over halfway through the army.

"Do you want to wheel out the Empress?" John asks, Batman thinks for a moment.

"Yes, we are going to need the room clean for this; Raven, I want you and Etrigan with me." Batman says with a smirk, Nightwing smirks as well; if a trio like that was assembled there would be answers. Raven nods as well before they head off to find said demon.

"I guess you realize that it will be a risk having her in there, in case Blackfire has done something nasty to the princess." John thinks out loud as they move down to the largest of the interview rooms.

"From all the interviews, I'm almost certain that Starfire is still alive. Why else would Blackfire want Robin, unless she wants to exterminate everything her sister came into contact with?" Batman counters, knowing not even Blackfire is that vindictive.

"Let go of me, you brute!" The Empress can be heard complaining down the corridor, a deep grumble can be heard as well. Looking into the room, the two see Blackfire being shoved through the door, unlike the other prisoners she is wearing also a pair of unwieldy manacles around her lower arms that drain her powers even further than the others, but also keeps her arms close together. The door closes behind her and the two are joined by the other three.

"I will go in first and see if she is cooperative." Nightwing rolls his eyes behind Batman's back as he speaks. "If she's not I will let you two in, you are allowed to be rough with her, but no lasting damage is accepted." He instructs the pair, both nod their agreement, Etrigan with a bit more reluctance.

While Raven whispers something to Etrigan, Batman enters the room and is almost jumped by the Empress who swings her restraints at him like a club; he steps to the side to avoid it while pulling a canister out of his belt. As Blackfire turns to swing at him again, she is met by a pepper spray in the face.

"If you are quite done throwing your tantrum, 'Empress', there are questions we want answers to." Batman says before shoving the coughing and spitting alien into a seat.

"You…you have no right to treat me like this! I am the Ruler of Tamaran!" She manages to spit out.

"Tamaran is far, far away, you invaded Earth seeking a person close to me, why?" Batman says calmly.

"Like I will tell you, human, you can't even hurt me." She coughs.

"If you won't talk to me, then I will have to call in some other people that would like to talk with you. If you live through it however is debatable. Etrigan, Raven, she's yours!" Batman leans back in his seat as the pair enters the room. Blackfire stares at Raven, remembering the name, but not the face.

"It's been a long time Blackfire." She says as Batman presses a button and the cuffs holding Blackfire opens while Raven talks.

"You're not the brat I knew by that name." Blackfire replies as she gets out of her seat and backs away.

"True, she went crazy a few years ago; I'm what's left of her. Etrigan, would you mind holding her?" Raven smiles as the lumbering demon quickly seizes the Empress, turns her around and holds her arms stretched out and lifting her off the floor. Batman puts his feet up on the table while leaning back, like he is enjoying a show, Raven picks out the pen she used earlier from her belt.

"You just let me know if you are ready to talk at some point." Batman mentions in an amused tone, Blackfire looks slightly worried at Raven as she shakes the pen.

"What are you doing? Get away from me!" She begins thrashing as Raven brings the point of the pen to her left elbow joint.

"Oh hush; this is not the part that hurts." Raven says in an amused tone as she begins drawing a dotted line around the limb, before moving to the other arm and repeats the process. "Do you want the left or the right side Etrigan?"

"She is right handed, there are more muscles there." Etrigan replies.

"Right it is then." Raven quips before writing Etrigan on the lower right arm and her own name on the left.

"What are you doing?" Blackfire asks, in a worried tone.

"Oh, we are just dividing who gets which pieces, prevents us ending up in a fight over it. Of course this is just estimates as neither of us uses anything other than our hands when we want a piece." It clicks somewhere in Blackfire's mind what exactly the pair are doing.

"You can't do this! Batman for X'hal's sake! Aren't you seeing this?!" She panics, as Raven grabs her left leg and begins to dot it up.

"What? I've seen it before, it's usually quite gory, but they are good at cleaning up." Batman replies in a carefree tone, as if this was perfectly normal. Raven moves on to Blackfire's midsection after dotting up the other leg.

"Do you want the intestines or the heart and lungs?" She asks Etrigan.

"I'll take her intestines." Raven nods before putting the names down.

"You can't be serious! I know your League doesn't condone this!" Blackfire yells.

"It's what we do with people we don't know what else to do with, like that guard that was in here 30 minutes ago." Batman continues, Raven sighs when she looks at Blackfires head.

"Why do you only have one head? Batman care to flip a coin for us?"

"No, we can use it later." The man replies with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Oh well, the parts are marked up, mind if I take a bite?" Raven asks Etrigan, who just shakes his head. Raven in response leans closer and tears a piece of armor off the left arm and take a whiff of it.

"Smells like chicken." She says with a sadistic gleam in her eyes before she licks her lips like hungry wolf. Blackfire stares at her not knowing if they are just trying to intimidate her or if this is really happening, Raven makes her mind up by biting down hard with her razor sharp teeth.

Raven almost pukes as Blackfire's blood begins to leak into her mouth, who would have known it tasted like rotten eggs? Blackfire doesn't seem to register it for a split second before she screams in pain.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! Get her off me!" She pleads, Batman just smiles.

"You two, off! We need that information." Etrigan looks at him before relenting, Raven pulls out her teeth before closing the worst of the internal damage in the arm as she pushes herself away, looking like a person with a severe purple nosebleed. Etrigan forcibly sits the paling Blackfire down across from Batman.

"Wh-What do you want to know?" Blackfire stammer in a timid tone no one knew she could use while clutching her wounded arm.

"Why did you want Robin?" Batman asks

"I…I wanted to use him, to…torment my sister."

"Why did you bring over a hundred Tamaranians to Earth?"

"I knew you and the League would protect him…I hired Slade to capture him, so I could have him extracted. But the bnf'ofkar betrayed me!" She seethes at the memory of the man.

"If you will excuse me." Raven mutters to Batman before disappearing, reappearing outside for the direction of the nearest bathroom, depositing her stomach contents being the main concern in her mind.

"So Starfire is alive?" Batman continues as if nothing had happened.

"A-After a fashion." Blackfire admits, Batman is suddenly glad Raven is not here for the next part, outside John is keep a close eye on Nightwing who has suddenly gone rigid.

"Go on." Batman says coldly, not like the thoughts he is getting.

"The Starfire you know, is gone, I broke her years ago. I ambushed her after taking the throne, she resisted for over two years…before she broke. Her body was broken months before her mind. I..I took everything I could from her…" Outside Nightwing is embraced in soundproof bubble, as he screams to be let into the room with Blackfire. Batman goes into the 'glacier mode' as Tim calls it, the mindset he goes into when dealing with the Joker.

"Give me a good reason why, I should not have the other Titans, Starfire's closest friends on this planet, come in here and let them paint the room with you?" Batman's voice is at its coldest it's ever been at this point. Blackfire's lack of response prompts Etrigan to size her wounded arm, putting his clawed fingers into her wounds before twisting, breaking the shoulder with a sickening crunch accompanied by Blackfires high pitched scream. The pain forces her upper body onto the table, where she sobs uncontrollably for a moment before answering.

"I…I…I cannot." She finally manages.

"Get her back in her cell." Batman orders, Etrigan shoves the bleeding and sobbing Empress out of the door, leaving Batman to sit alone in the room.

An hour later, after Nightwing has cooled down somewhat, Batman breaks the news to the others. Cyborg is the most vocal of the three, as he stomps around yelling angrily, often mentioning what he wanted to do to Blackfire. Beastboy begins pacing and mumbling something down the same lines as Cyborg. Raven closes her eyes and remains motionless, to Nightwing's immediate annoyance; it was like the day they all decided to split.

"Rae, why do you do that?" He asks the sitting woman that had since resumed her normal appearance, they were all gathered in the otherwise empty cantina, Green Lantern in covering the door in case someone was to try and act on the many threats being implied.

"Do what?" She replies with still closed eye, her voice is strained as if fighting to keep something out of it.

"Damnit Rae! I mean this stone queen attitude; it was the same when we all decided to leave the Titans. It like you don't even care…" This makes Ravens eyes snap open as fast as she gets to her feet to look Nightwing in the eyes.

"I don't care!? Ric…Nightwing Damnit! You the one who knows me best of all, should know that it is tearing me apart that one of my best friends have endured Azar knows what for the last four years. But I can't let this affect me, like I couldn't let me affect me back then!"

"Why Rae? You have shown more control of yourself to allow something to show."

"No, I can't trust myself staying in control if I act on this; if I do there would be no stopping me from tearing this building apart and everyone in it! Back then I was fighting to stop myself from simply sealing you all in the Tower so I wouldn't be alone! I'm not like you Nightwing, I can't simply go punch something to relieve tension…please understand that." Nightwing seems to realize what he is doing, as he looks down in shame.

"I'm sorry Rae." He turns to leave the room.

"We will get her back, she is not dead." Raven says forcefully, sparking something in Nightwing; determination.

"You're right Rae, she is alive and we have to get her back no matter what state she's in." Nightwing's sudden optimism is noted by the other two Titans.

"It will take some time, but if I can get the parts, I will get a ship together." Cyborg says quietly.

"How long do you figure t will take?" Batman asks, startling Beastboy and Cyborg who had forgotten he was even there.

"If I use the plans for the old T-ship, it should be done in a matter of weeks, and that's knowing me wanting to tinker." As much as Nightwing wants to yell at the man to share his blueprints and hurry up, he knows Cyborg will only argue back before going ahead as he wanted to.

"Do it, I will supply the parts and it will leave Raven some time with the founders, we all agreed if you said yes, then we would hold a meeting about which order we evaluate in. And Raven I need to have a word with you."

The Caped Crusader and the former Teen Titan walks out into the corridors and keeps walking without an apparent goal.

"Did I overdo it in there?" Raven asks.

"No, all things considered you couldn't have done anything else or she would have known you were faking. You were faking right?" Raven glares sideways at him. "I have to know." He answers, Raven sighs.

"Regardless of my appearance, my metabolism and most of my regular senses are still very much human, besides the hearing that is. Meaning I still eat and drink what you would, so a cup of blood or a dish of raw flesh will make me hurl. Add the fact that whatever Tamaranians have running through their veins tastes like rotten eggs, it is not something I want to repeat in the near future if ever again." Batman nods before speaking again.

"You realize if Cyborg finishes his ship while you are signed up with Green Lantern, you may not be able to go with them?"

"Why not?"

"The Green Lantern Corps is forbidden by their superiors to enter the Vega system, if they do it they might be expelled or imprisoned. Assuming he will leave the planet with you."

"Look if I happen to get signed with him at that time, I will go with Nightwing and the others regardless. As much as I'd like to be friends with the League, I care more about one of the few true friends I have. Especially one that's in need of aid."

"They are hard to come by, I know. I won't hold it against you, but others might." He warns her as they turn down to the hallway with the prison cells.

"It is a choice I make, if they find it a crime; then it will have to be that way." Raven says sternly as they both spot a red skinned Martian phase through the walls, Raven notes with some disgust he has copied her looks with the skin color and the four eyes, which has forced him to raise his forehead.

"They seem more willing to talk when I appear like this." J'onn says, somehow sensing Ravens displeasure.

"They would, you are literally pretending to be related to the devil, even Tamaranians know of Trigon." Raven notes dryly.

"Might as well stop now J'onn, we had Blackfire in for questioning. We have what we need from them."

"Which leaves the question of what to do with them?" J'onn finishes.

"We will need to discuss this with the others, call them together when they are all available." Batman says before walking off, leaving Raven with the Martian.

"My appearance displeases you?" He asks.

"I once lived most of my life in fear of what I see in the mirror now." Ravens reply earns her a nod of understanding from J'onn before he changes back to his usual shape and color.

"Forgive me; I have yet to master the art of verbal interrogation that Batman masters. I observed you as you spoke to the first one and I believed it was your appearance that intimidated them." Raven stares at him for a second. Guessing he follows the same unspoken rules as her, invading another's mind had to be consensual or needed.

"You tried changing into Batman once, didn't you?" She asks, wondering if the green alien understood the concepts of human fear.

"I did, he was not amused when he met me." J'onn remembers the man giving him one of those looks that made Superman cower, before asking him not to replicate any of his teammates without their permission or unless in need. "Yet the Flash and Diana recognized me." They still hadn't told him how they did it; Raven did however have a good idea how.

"You smiled at someone I guess?" J'onn thinks for a moment about that time before nodding, he had smiled at both Leaguers it seemed all humans did this as a sign of greeting between colleagues and friends. "That's how."

"Hmm, I appreciate the insight." Actually he is a bit more perplexed why he was discovered, pushing the thought aside he decides to discuss something else. "Forgive me for asking, but when I walked in your mind, what was it I saw? I have seen many memories but never ones like the ones I saw there."

"You saw Azerath, it was my home as a child. Trigon destroyed it physically years ago, before he came to Earth." Raven explains hoping the Martian won't pry anymore about it, but she is certain he is trying to peek through her mental defenses as they speak.

"It was not a just memory was it?" She sighs at this.

"No. What you saw is Azerath as it exists today, a city of ghosts in my head."

"I see. I hope we can talk more of this later, but the meeting will begin in a few moments." Raven nods at him before he fades from view; it was going to become boring having to explain this in turn to each of the Founders. Sighing in the empty hallway, Raven wonders where the kitchen is and if it has more tea.

Batman hates when the meetings degrade into this, it would be a major embarrassment to all of them if others found out three founding members where arguing over who should have the chance to evaluate Raven first and three are trying to be the last. He himself had been excepted on the grounds that he had already spent weeks with having her under his remote command.

"You know let's just roll a dice or something." Wally's exclamation brings Batman out of his musings; the meeting was not going to degrade to that.

"Right, all of you!" His voice shuts the others up. "Since you can't decided, I will, the order is; Diana, Wally, Clark, Shayera, J'onn and John." The room is silent for a second, before everyone agrees. "Good, I will inform her Diana is up first. Diana; be ready tomorrow." With that he leaves the room, leaving the rest in the room.

"So what will you do?" Flash asks Wonder Woman, one day was short to come up with a plan.

"Combat training, but I have yet to secure the proper arena." Diana says while getting out of her seat as well, intending to go place the call needed hoping the recipient would allow it.

"So what do you think the League will have you doing?" Beastboy asks, breaking the stream of tech-mumbo-jumbo Cyborg and Nightwing are poring over, Raven who is sipping idly from her cup of tea in the cantina of the Hall of Justice.

"I know Wonder Woman will want to fight me, again, but otherwise I don't know." She replies shortly before turning back to her tea, going over the same question in her head.

"Didn't she have enough the first time?" Beastboy asks, remembering the wounds Diana had when she was brought out of the training hall.

"You've watched enough pointless movies about Conan and the sort while you lived in the Tower to know why she wants one." She shrugs.

"Ah yeah." Beastboy replies sheepishly, having obviously forgotten. A short series of bleeps only audible to Raven and Nightwing alerts the two of an incoming call to the communicator he is carrying in his ear.

"Go ahead Batman." He replies while pressing the device, to activate the microphone, he listens for a few moments. "I will, see you back in Gotham." He lets his hand fall down before he turns to Raven. "Batman just want us to know he is heading back to Gotham and that you are to meet with Wonder Woman tomorrow and that you should bring sun block." He finishes with a smirk, Raven just stares at him.

"She's taking me to Themyscira, isn't she?" She asks and he nods in reply, still smirking; Beastboy's and Cyborg's jaws drop.


	18. Paradise Island

"So this is what you look like when in your preferred appearance?" Diana asks the grey skinned woman with purple hair and eyes heading towards her, meeting as agreed in the hangar of the League satellite; Diana in her usual attire, Raven with a patched up cloak and a small black nylon bag of things Bruce had thought she might need. They had spent most of the previous day relaxing and preparing, Cyborg and Beastboy had to go back to Metropolis and the Patrol respectively, since they had only planned to be away for the weekend.

"I usually get fewer stares this way, at least up here." Raven replies with a flat voice, it was good not getting stared at, Diana just smiles a little.

"Well hop aboard." She says while patting something Raven can't see, but it sounded like it was made of metal.

"Uh…?" Raven manages as Diana casually leans against the invisible object.

"My own jet, it's invisible." Diana explains with a smirk before jumping up and into the craft, her head and shoulders are the only parts of her that is still visible after she sits down. "There's a seat behind me." Raven stares at her for a second before floating up; as she looks down she does see a jet cockpit surrounded by nothing.

"And here I thought you only flew Javelins and under your own power." Raven mentions as she gets in, throwing her bag at her feet. "It's impressive."

"Thank you, it was built by one my sisters. We know more about technology than the papers usually gives us credit for." Diana replies, igniting the engines and closing the hatch. "Or she does at least."

"I assume it's build for space travel?" Raven asks cautiously, remembering normal jets cannot usually handle space travel or entering Earths atmosphere for that matter.

"It doubles as a submarine as well when needed." Diana assures as she rolls the jet out into the now vacant hall before speeding out of the doors into space. The pair is quiet for a few moments as Diana sets the course she needs to follow so they won't risk burning up on reentry.

"So can I ask what I am going to do, or is that a secret?" Raven asks after Diana seems to ease up on the controls.

"Amazon training." Diana says with hint of mirth to her voice, Raven had no idea what that meant besides guessing it was bound to be physical in nature.

"Ok…so how did you mange this with Queen Hippolyta? I thought outsiders were generally…unwelcome there?" From the impression Raven had, she atleast would not be a welcome sight inside the Queens borders for the forseeable future.

"It was actually my mother that insisted that you'd be subjected to the course, I was originally planning on a series of sparring matches in a place where we wouldn't be bothed by the others, but she is the Queen." Raven is now officially worried; it had to be hard if it was the Queen with a grudge that had set it up. Unknown to her, it also wondered Diana a little why her mother was doing this, but she had leant long ago that her mother's intentions were never to be second guessed at, and there were sound reasons behind her decisions, most of the time.

"So is there anything I should know, like etiquette?" Ravens asks after a moment.

"Well since you will be living amongst us, you will be called sister by those being civil and outsider by most others, also you can expect to be asked to change your attire, only the court magician is allowed to wear the cloak and hood outside of formal activities." Raven cringes, she had spent most of the night patching her cloak and leotard together, after making sure Cyborg and Beastboy were asleep. "Besides with what you will have to do, it probably won't be suitable attire." Diana is silent for a moment as they both admire the air around the jet catching fire, there's not the roar Raven expected, the display was actually quite relaxing for her. "One more thing, and don't be offended by it, but since men rarely ever set foot on the island, there might be some who might see a more intimate interest in you." Raven is dumbstruck by the comment, but not overly surprised when she thinks about it. "It's unlikely, but still possible and I just hope you aren't prejudice?"

"It would be strange, but I am usually able to keep people away." Raven says regaining her composition.

"So that city J'onn saw, what was it?" Diana asks after another moment.

"Azerath, my home, I told J'onn a little about it. It was destroyed by Trigon years ago, when I went there to seek their aid, I became host to all of the souls who had died during Trigon's attack. I learned later from them why they were inside of me; Trigon had cursed them before killing them, sealing their souls inside the dimension Azerath existed in, cutting them off from joining Azar in the afterlife. When I came, they flooded into me to escape because I could leave with them, but they decided to stay."

"So you can talk to them?"

"Yes, but they prefer to remain mostly silent as they know if they talk too loudly or many at a time they will affect me out here."

"Aren't they a burden, I mean having a multitude of voices in your head?"

"Not really, they add a calming influence over me because they keep as quiet as they do. Besides I feel I owe it to them, because I was born and raised by them Trigon stole their lives, it is the least I could do for them. Even if they claim it is them that owe me."

"It is a noble thing you are doing then, I must admit I find it hard to believe myself but some of the things I have seen and done could be called strange as well."

"Well I think that you fighting mythological monsters have been accepted by the general public." Raven points out; Diana actually killed a resurrected Medusa on national TV once. The pair falls into silence again as the burning air is replaced by clear, blue sky on the horizon, masses of clouds beneath them occasionally parts to show glimpses of the ocean beneath them. Raven notes the clouds must be high above the ground, telling her it was not raining under them as they soon find themselves beneath them or they were just going really fast. Looking past Dianas shoulder, Raven catches her first view of the fabled home of the Amazons; the city of Themyscira.

Paradise Island is crescent shaped with a large mountain dominating its central portion; the surrounding area is covered by green tropical forests. White sandy beaches surround the island along with the aqua-blue inner sea and the cerulean ocean outside of it. At the foot of the mountain Raven can see the white marble structures of the capitol of the island nation, along with a few golden specks she guesses are statues or other similar decorations. From the distance Raven is not ashamed to say the island true deserves its name; Paradise Island.

"Wow." Raven says quietly in her usual monotone voice. Diana smiles, having been informed even the smallest compliment from the woman behind her should be magnified a few hundred times to express the true impact it was having on her.

"Glad you like it; I hope you will feel the same when we have to leave." Diana says cheerfully.

10 minutes later the pair is getting out of the plane, having landed on a circular stone platform at the harbor and being met by five amazons. Artemis and four others wearing golden chest plates, chalcidian helmets which hides most of their faces, sandals and white toga's visible beneath the armor, the four are armed with tall spears and round shields all of them physically distinct from each other; one is very broad shouldered and muscularly built, another seems almost frail, especially next to the broad one, the third is built very much like Artemis, only taller, and the last has a pair of well defined arms that look a little out of proportion to the rest of her.

"Welcome home Princess and welcome to Themyscira Demon." Artemis greets in a slightly mocking tone, Raven resorts to nodding at the woman hoping Artemis would be one of the few that would choose to call her that.

"Thank you Artemis, sisters this is Raven she will be training with us for a time." Diana says while looking at the four others, Raven hopes it is to prevent them from picking up Artemis' bad habits, it's enough to make them lower their gazes at least.

"We know, we have been instructed by Queen Hippolyta to make sure she is informed properly." Artemis replies smartly, stressing the words Queen and informed. "Now if you will hand over your cloak we shall get moving." Raven sighs quietly before unclasping her cloak before packing it into her bag, not wanting to leave it in the hands of anyone she didn't know. Artemis just shrugs, knowing the rules were being upheld the others remain motionless. "Follow me then." Artemis orders before turning away from them and walks away, with Raven, Diana and the four guards following. Raven notes how fast she is getting too hot in the strong sun without her cloak and that the four guards behind her march in perfect unison while she finds herself unconsciously trying to get into the pace.

As they walk Raven gets a chance to quietly marvel at the architecture without turning her head, to her the city is like taken out of a completely different time period, just about 500 years BC according to the western world to be precise. Everything is white marble down here by the harbor; actually everything looked like the Acropolis with their columns and staircases. Also of note are the many statues they pass, usually depicting one of the Greek gods, though none of them are named they still carry the symbols that mark them, and the twenty or so ships in the harbor. But what interests Raven the most, are the amazons themselves, she didn't know what to expect of them here on their own island, but society here seemed to run like any other. Some walk around in uniforms looking serious, which they probably are, others looked like they are hanging out with friends, and again they were probably doing just that. While she hated the notion, a small part of her wondered if the single sex society lacked things a regular one had. She remembers Beastboy atleast once mention a magazine article that described the Amazons as a half-society and that such things as soldiers and construction work, traditional male dominated jobs ithe rest of the world was something only the fewest Amazons practiced. Raven wasn't sure which magazine it has been written in, though she was pretty sure it was one of those aimed at young males that regularly featured simpily dressed women as bait, Cyborg had a stack of those somewhere, but they were gone when he moved out. A little uncomfortable note is that Raven notes she does receive a few short looks, but she hopes it is not just Diana's presence that's making them look away, it could be a royal command after all. On the subject of Diana, Raven notes she is only a little taller than herself but noticeably taller than Artemis. Actually Artemis is the shortest person Raven has seen here so far, herself included. Somewhere it amuses Raven to think of why Artemis really was acting the way she was, obviously suffering from degree of a Napoleon complex.

The walk takes them along the docks were Raven notes the buildings gradually become shorter and less grand than those they started out amidst first going from what could be as tall as a 5 storied building to four then three. When they begin passing buildings that only pass as two stories, they begin seeing a shift in the architecture, instead of the temple like buildings these two storey building are without columns or the sloping roof of the others, actually they look more like square blocks made of either dirty marble or more common stone.

She realizes they are passing into a military area as armed and armored women become a more frequent sight, either as small squads being directed around by their commanders, fighting mock duels with blunted swords or in the midst of target practice with bow and arrow. Along the way they pass by a gold statue of an armed and armored woman with a spear raised high to make a solar clock with the ground under it. Finally they reach their destination a solitary two storey building with its back to the jungle. Stepping out of the blazing sun as they enter, Raven finally notices that even her usual leotard is not a practical thing here as it seems to shrink in uncomfortable places in the heat and that it's not properly ventillated. When her eyes finally adjust to the sudden absence of the strong sunlight, she is greeted by 3 lines of simple wood frame beds; they are in a barrack Raven realizes. Artemis walks to a certain one in the center of the room it.

"Ok, this will be your bunk for your time here; your personal belongings can be put into this." She kicks a wooden basket under the bed. "If nature calls, it's out there." She throws a thumb at an open door behind her showing off some of the jungle. "Got that? Good. There are a few rules you will need to remember, first of all if someone tells you to do something, you do it, no buts, no ifs and no arguing. Secondly whatever special skills you may have, they are not allowed to be used unless told to do so. As far as the others go, you are an outsider with rare skin pigmentation nothing more. A special emphasis is on your other shape; we don't want to see it in public at all. Third; you will be accompanied at all times by someone. Lastly there is to be no communication with the outside world unless we approve of it. Got all of that?" Raven nods at the woman, wondering how much influence she had over the arrangement. "Repeat."

"I have to follow every order given, I am to act as if completely human, I am never to be alone and I cannot keep in touch with the world outside." Artemis smirks as Raven finishes repeating.

"Good, the four you see here are Philipus, Antiope, Penelope and Io." She points to each woman in turn who silently nods. So far Raven couldn't really tell their faces apart with most of their features hidden behind their helmets and armor, only their physical shapes, which Io was easy due to her muscles, Philipus is the frail and slightly nervous one, Penelope is the all rounder and Antiope is the one with the arms. "You will be training with them, and I will be the acting commander. And Princess, you have been asked to remain out of this for now." Diana raises her eyebrows slightly at this.

Diana knows these women well, so it is a surprise to her that they have been assembled for this. Io is the master blacksmith of the Amazons, responsible for most of their advanced pieces of technology, including her own plane. Antiope is the best archer the island has, able to split a fruit from a distance of 500m while running. Phillipus is the apprentice of the court mystic Magala. Lastly Penelope is the best unarmed fighter they have and Artemis is the second best all rounder warrior. "And just a small reminder, if you fall behind during our activities, you get left behind. We will begin in a few moments; you'll find a change of clothes in the basket." With that Artemis and the others stroll out of the room, leaving Diana and Raven alone.

"This is going to be a bit more than you had planned for, isn't it?" Raven asks, noticing the change in the other woman.

"It is, and I am going to have words with my mother about it. But good luck Raven." Diana replies before leaving Raven to change into a white toga with a brown leather belt and a pair of sandals that go halfway up her shins. In one way she hates the white fabric already, it is too loose for her usual taste and showing off too much skin, on the other hand she guesses it will be better to train in with the strong sun than her regular attire, at least it seemed better ventillated. Emerging out of the barrack she sees the four others stand erect with their hands clasped on their backs in front of Artemis, right hand closed around the left bracelet on their wrists, their arms and armor deposited by the walls of the barracks. Now that she can tell them apart, Raven notes Io has short brown hair. Penelope, standing next to Io, has long blond hair which is tied in a single pony tail and she is a little taller than the others. Antiope has a stern face and long raven hair which, like the Penelope's, is tied in a ponytail. Philipus is shorter than the others, besides Artemis who is the shortest of them all, she has caramel colored hair that's kept loose. None of them look at Raven as she takes up the place next to Philipus.

"Good, you're here, now ladies I thought we would start the day with our new 'sister' with a leisurely stroll around the island." Artemis smirks as she notes the almost invisible and inaudible groan coming from the group of seasoned amazons. "Follow me." Artemis replies with a smirk before setting off.

"Diana, welcome home." Queen Hippolyta greets her daughter as she enters the throne room, noticing the stern look on her face she continues. "I assume you are here to argue fiercely about the training schedule that has been put together for your new friend?"

"I am not mother, it is your decision, but I would like to know why she is being asked to keep up with some of the best of us? And why my sport has been sidelined?" Diana knows Hippolyta could just choose to call the whole thing off if she wanted to or do worse.

"Io is there because she needs to see some other training than with her smithy provides her with, as does Phillipus who can also sense if she is using her powers. Artemis, Antiope and Penelope are there in case something goes wrong." Hippolyta explains calmly. "You will be able to observer her while she trains with them and if she makes it though, both you and Artemis can have that fight with her you are both itching for." Somehow it didn't surprise Diana that Artemis would want one after hearing about Diana's own.

"And I guess you have a reason for abolishing her powers?"

"It would defeat the purpose of the training; she will compete on equal terms like the rest of the sisters we have raised." The wording has Diana raise an eyebrow at her mother who just for a second seems to know something she didn't before her calm façade is back up. "Call me curious to see what Man's World has to offer in a self made warrior today."

"And if she falls behind?" Diana asks as she lets the notion slide that her mother definitely knew something she wasn't sharing at the moment.

"Obviously she will have failed to live up to have we have to offer."

"And you know Artemis might try and provoke a situation where she can't be expected to actually succeed?"

"She is doing that just now, observe." Hippolyta rises out of her seat, to walk to a large pool with still water in the ground next to her throne. An image appears of six females running along a beach, a red head in the lead with four following closely behind her and a purple haired one a short distance behind them. "These situations will be judged by her performance in relation to the others." Diana notes the group is almost are out of the harbor area and will soon be hitting the beach. "We are not trying to deliberately make her fail Diana, but we are going to test her they way we can." Diana sighs, with that group of people assembled Raven is in the deep end already.

An hour and a half later Raven arrives as the last of the group, two minutes and a half after the others, in a cartoon world she would have her tongue hanging out and dragging it after her, right now she just feels ready to collapse on the ground. The others appear to be close to the same state as her, Artemis and the shorthaired are both taking heavy breaths though their noses, Raven can tell that Artemis is merely winded, the shorthaired is doing it out of stubborn pride. Penelope and Antiope are both breathing labouredly though their teeth as they are stretching. The last one actually looks worse than she thinks she does herself as Philipus has collapsed on the ground, with her face looking pale.

"Good…you made it. Thought we…might have lost you…back there." Artemis' speech is broken up by her need for air. "Philipus get up and stretch or you won't walk tomorrow." Artemis commands the woman on the ground. Raven extends get hand to help her up but s waved off, as the Amazon insists on getting up on her own. Raven shrugs before beginning to stretch herself, internally thanking Richard for insisting on they all did few laps around the island during the week, even if this was much harder. 25km worth of beach was after all something else than the small Titan Island, and the rocks they had to climb over near the mountain and at the tips of the island didn't make it easier. After a few minutes Artemis calls them all together.

"Ok double time it over to the archery lane, Antiope you take over from there." Artemis instructs, before Antiope leads the way in a jogging pace, the others follow.

The rest of Raven's day passes like this, jogging from one activity to another, with little time to rest and even less for any conversation. Thankfully they have an hour around noon to seek shade and enjoy their lunch, which consists of white bread and what looks like water but has a strange taste to it. Raven spent the time when she wasn't eating to meditate, just to make sure none of her emotions were getting too rowdy, finding everything oddly tranquil before having to begin training again. At the end of the day, she has had archery lessons; finding out she is a terrible shot when not controlling her breathing and that she most likely embarrassed herself with the efforts she puts into pulling the string and her stance. Unarmed combat followed with Penelope who seemed to be mildly impressed with what Raven was already capable of doing, as she lasted longer than Io, Antiope and Philipus, despite not having the natural strength and durability of the others. Lastly Artemis had treated them to an extended course of weapons training, swords, spears and other ancient weapons were given a proper introduction before practice began. Unnoticed by Raven, Diana had kept close watch on her from either the pool in the throne room or from a distance. After a lonely dinner that consisted of bread, dried meat and the strange tasting water she noted came prepared for her, and a much needed bath, Raven collapses onto her bunk, too tired to care that the other four were taking up the ones next to her.

As Raven drifts off into exhausted slumber, Artemis enters the royal palace, Hippolyta having insisted on being personally informed about Raven's progress, despite being able to watch her every move if she wished to. Entering the throne room, Artemis bows shortly before facing the Queen and her daughter who is currently perfrming her evening prayers at the foot of the gigantic statue of Athena behind the throne.

"How does the newcomer fare Sister?" Hippolyta asks after Artemis bows shortly, while she let it slip when off the island, she wouldn't tolerate any lack of respect for the throne while on it.

"I expected to lose her during the morning run but she kept pace well enough, for an outsider. Her archery leaves much to be desired, as does her weapon handling, but she already knows how to fight unarmed. For an outsider, she is doing well." Artemis acknowledges, behind the throne Diana lets on a small smile.

At the crack of dawn, Raven awakens to find the barracks empty besides from herself and the four others. After changing into a fresh toga someone has deposited in her basket, she sits on her bed and meditates, not noticing she is floating an inch or two over it. The others awaken to find her like this.

"Philipus, what is she doing?" Io whispers, fearing the strange woman is doing something fiendish. Philipus closes her eyes for a moment before speaking.

"She is merely mediating." Antiope and Penelope stop inching their hands towards the knives in their baskets, seeing no harm in the activity. As if she noticed their awakening, Raven opens her eyes before realizing what she is doing.

"Ah nuts." She mutters, knowing the others had seen.

"Ok girl what is the deal here, we were warned that you might look different but were otherwise like any other outsider, only 'troubled' as Artemis put it?" Antiope asks the others nod as they get out of bed, Raven sighs.

"You'd freak out if I told you."

"Try us." Io says while crossing her arms.

"Let's just say that the other side of me that Artemis told me not to let out during my stay here is not a figure of speech. You have heard of the Justice League?"

"The outsiders that came here to our island, yes we have." Penelope says with a sour tone.

"Well I had I run in with them, they want to gauge if I can be trusted by them, me coming here is part of that."

"You're part demon aren't you?" Philipus asks almost timidly, getting the others eyes to widen a bit.

"Yes, yes I am, partially." Raven answers after a moment, figuring Philipus could read her aura or something like that, there definitely was arcane powers inside the woman, old powers from what Raven could tell. "Look I will understand if you don't want anything to do with me, but I am here to prove myself to Princess Diana for the most part and currently this has been sidelined by your Queen, as I understand it." The others huddle together in a circle muttering to themselves, Raven pretends not to hear them. They all seem to come to a conclusion before facing her again.

"Look it's not what you are that trouble's us, we know many of the Gods are the products of mating between them and mortals. It's the fact no one told us since they obviously know about it." Antiope explains.

"So you don't mind?" Raven asks, taken aback by the Amazons behavior.

"Actually we have been wondering a few times if mating between immortals and mortal we only confined to the gods above us. So may we ask which one you are the child of?" Io asks.

"I would prefer keeping that to myself for the time being, Queen Hippolyta and Princess Diana seemed to be greatly disturbed when I told them."

"Hmm either it is Ares or Hade's, they are the only two that would disturb those two." Penelope muses.

"He is not one of your pantheon, please don't prod anymore about it now, I am not proud of who my dad is." Raven says hoping the plea would be present though her tone doesn't change, hoping the others will leave it at that.

"Ok we will leave it at that, but we will want to know which demigod we are bushing shoulders with eventually." Io says with a smirk. Raven decides to let the comment slip and change the subject.

"So can I ask who you are? I know you by name but not much else really?"

"Well I am Io, grand crafter of Themyscira. I am here because our fair Queen decided I need to get out of my forge once in a while." The short haired woman says while smiling, it had taken a royal command to get her out.

"I am Philipus, I am currently in training as a mystic as you may have noticed." She says, explaining why she seemed to be in poorer shape than the others, Raven notes internally, she had put too much effort keeping up with the others amazons yesterday.

"And as you know, I am Antiope." The raven headed says.

"Our best archer." Io adds, getting Antiope to stare at her.

"And I am Penelope, and before Io spills it, I am the unarmed combat instructor. So who are you then outsider?" She asks with a smile.

"I am Raven from Azerath." Raven answers, feeling more at ease with the others which was good.

As the day begins, Raven notices a few changes around her and with herself. Even with the extensive physical exercise from yesterday, she doesn't feel like it is affecting her as much as she thought it would. Something she is thankful for since the new day is pretty much a repetition of yesterday, starting with a run around the island, where she strangely enough manages to keep better pace with the others. Leading over into a swim across the harbor, before moving over to archery, also a slight improvement today as she actually manages to hit the target from the first shot and pull the string more easily. Today they eat lunch and chat amongst themselves, turns out Io is a bit of a prankster as she enjoys making fun of the sterner Antiope and Penelope, Philipus is a quiet one who seems to stare at Raven a little too often. Often their conversation would fall on their shared drill sergeant, and they agreed after Ravens explanation of the concept that Artemis indeed was compensating for something. Artemis herself tended to vanish whenever they had a break. But Raven did notice someone else following them around, it was a bit unnerving, she knew there was someone there but whenever she looked in the direction it would have vanished, the others guessed it could be the Princess keeping watch. It had been a royal edict that she kept out of the training Raven underwent, but she was assured that she had ways of keeping an eye on her. After lunch came unarmed combat training which went much like yesterday, only it seemed to take longer for Penelope to defeat them all. Weapons' training after it was like yesterday, only with fewer bruises and scrapes. Dinner today was spent with the others which proved to be amusing as the others pestered Raven for stories of the outside world in turn they would tell stories of their own exploits. Noticing the other were actually drinking red wine, Raven takes a deep whiff of the 'water' she was being poured noticing there definitely was another sent to it.

"Umm, Penelope this isn't normal water is it?" Raven asks holding her clay cup towards the blond next to her, who first looks at it before taking a whiff herself, lastly taking a sip of it. She chuckles as she hands it back to her. The others look on with interest.

"No sister it is not, that is what we call Godswater it is what we give our aspirants to build them up to our own standards. I am however more perplexed as to how you got it?" The others seem surprised as well at this.

"I get it handed out with my basket like the rest of you…I am not supposed to I guess?" Raven asks seeing the looks on their faces.

"Not to our knowledge, but let's keep that to ourselves, if someone has decided to bless you with it, it is best to accept." Antiope adds

"So, will this make me like the rest of you?" Raven asks to keep the conversation going and to immediately distract her from the notion of her gaining superhuman physiology.

"Somewhat, depends on how long you get it issued, but it will make you stronger, faster and more durable than the outsiders usually are but the effects aren't everlasting, but to us it lasts a hundred years or so before we notice the effects fading." Io explains. "I wonder if this is Diana's doing?" She muses out loud, it sparks another round of debate, ending in the assumption it probably was, considering she was unaware of the regime Raven had been set up with.

Eventually the night comes and they all go to sleep, only to be awakened by an annoying Artemis that had a spur of inspiration that had them all running though the jungle in middle of the night; many curses were heaped on the redhead when they returned home, hours later.

* * *

**Enjoy and review :)**


	19. Gods of Olympus

"Nightwing calling Cyborg." The communicator sounds in the Hall's workshop, the man in question walks over from his work, the lower skeleton of the ship is beginning to take shape.

"Yo man, what's up?" Cyborg greets the masked man.

"Not much, how is the ship coming together?"

"Nicely, Steel provided much of the plating and skeleton and Batman has provided most of the circuitry, but I'm still missing the engines and a few other bits, but it's coming together. Heard anything about Rae over there?"

"Only that Queen Hippolyta decided to change the agreement a before allowing the visit, but Wonder Woman says Raven is dealing with it admirably." Nightwing replies, quickly dispelling the note of anger Cyborg was about to strike.

"So ya reckon she will be a bonafied Amazon when she gets back?" Cyborg asks with a smirk and a wink well aware that Nightwing was hiding an attraction to woman.

"After a week or two? I doubt it. Besides it's a League test, not an induction for the Amazons." Actually Nightwing is unsure if the Amazons take in females not raised by them.

"But you think she'll pass?"

"With Raven, yes, she's as stubborn as me after all, and if she wants to pass she will go the extra mile for it. I'm only worried she will over exhaust herself over there." Actually he was thinking the old Raven and hard physical exercise were like polar opposites, but the new Raven, who knows?

"I hear ya, but it wouldn't hurt if she came back as one." Cyborg smirks knowingly, Nightwing seems to understand what he is implying.

"I think I better leave you to your work Cy." With that he shuts off the communication, leaving Cyborg to chuckle to himself, content with knowing that if Nightwing kept up like that, Beastboy would owe Cyborg 50 bucks.

Morning comes much too soon for the group of five on Paradise Island, they are all tired and covered in bruises and insect bites from spending half the night running around the jungle. Apparently even Amazons can get lost in the jungle at night. The others agree with Raven that a morning meditation session is needed before one of them did something stupid. After ridding themselves of any unnecessary negative thoughts, they have breakfast before walking over to their usual meeting spot, seeing Artemis with her back turned towards them they hurry over and get into line.

"None of you laugh." Artemis warns them with a serious tone before turning. The others have to fight to keep from disobeying, the lower left part of Artemis' face has swollen to an absurd size taking on a strange blue-red color, it only becomes better when they notice her red eyes and the bags beneath them. Raven however decides it's time for some measure of payback for Artemis picking on her.

"Be ready to run." She whispers to the others who immediately understands what she is about to do. "So…you got lost and ran into a tree tonight, didn't you?" Artemis' undamaged part of her face lights up at Raven's implied remark but otherwise just stares daggers at her revealing the truth of the matter. "RUN!" Raven yells before the group storms off into the Amazon city, Artemis stares after them for half a second before screaming in anger and sets off in pursuit of the laughing group.

The group sticks together for a good while, being pursued through most of the city, entering the city square, they decide to split up, violating one of Ravens rules; leaving her alone in the city. After hiding for a while behind a water barrel, Raven heads back to their barracks, being careful not to run into Artemis on the way. Entering the barracks she sits down on her bed before lying back and closes her eyes. _"Well that was fun."_

"So you are the one the Princess brought here, interesting." A silk wrapped male voice is heard and Raven bolts upright, knowing no man should be there. Looking around in confusion she spots him standing deeping into the barracks; a large blond haired man with grey-blue eyes, wearing a black-blue heavy suit of armor in the fashion of a medieval knight. Under his right arm he is cradling a similarly colored helmet that resembles the one the Amazons wear; his left hand is leaning on a massive two-headed battle axe. To Ravens senses the man is practically radiating violence and bloodshed, she's never met anyone that reads like he does to her. "Pretending to be an Amazon are we? Very well then, but you should know what that ultimately means; have a vision…of war." His eyes pulses a dull red and Raven eyes roll into her skull while she collapses onto the ground as her mind is sent elsewhere. The man places his helmet on his head before walking over to observe her closer, his own eyes watching along seeing Ravens reaction to the vision he is giving her. Slowly things begin to move around on their own in the barrack and the man smiles.

Diana is running down the stairs from the palace, she needs to find Artemis and the others before heading over to where she needs to be.

"Diana! Where is she?! Where is that demon brat?!" A furious Artemis yells at her from her right, Diana sees her stomping towards her, her face still swollen; the rest is red as blood.

"No time Artemis, Ares' presence has been sensed on the island!"

Artemis stops like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on her before remembering her sworn duty and pulls out a small horn she always carries around before blowing a clear tone, alerting every warrior nearby to report to the palace. Soon the pair is surrounded by several dozen warriors with more emerging every minute from the palace and the city. Diana waves her hands in the direction they need to go before flying in the direction of the military quarter, everyone else follows on foot. Following a causeway leading from the palace square to the military quarter, they get a grand view of the entire area; it all looks like normal except for the warriors coming towards them, answering the summons. Moving into the area, Artemis orders them all to fan out and search the area, as they move to comply a building at the northern end explodes, sending stones flying everywhere. The army instantly moves towards it, eager to meet the enemy. Diana heads off ahead of them, noticing the building that was once the barrack has been turned into a crater half a meter deep. As the dust settles she sees two figures moving inside as well as a lot of debris that seems to fly around on their own. The dust clears completely as the army draws close, revealing the black-blue armored form of Ares fighting an enraged demon.

"Child of Destruction, hear me!" Ares calls to his opponent ignoring the approaching army. "Join me! Become my champion and you shall taste sweet victory, forever!" The only reply his opponent gives him is a howl of fury and a clawed swipe at his head that has him dodge aside, Diana's blood boils at the words as she understands what he is doing; Ares is attempting to turn Raven into a monster. Ares blocks anther swipe and ends up with him and Raven pushing against each other with his axe in the middle. "Join me!" He whispers to her face, as he slowly forces his way forwards, she replies with a slight smile at him before she gives way to him. Ares falls forwards as Raven pulls him down, before balling her legs and kicking him over her, sending him crashing down behind her, leaving his axe in her hands. Lighting fast she is back on her feet, as is he with his back to the army.

"Raven! Don't fight him, you can't win, it is what he wants!" Diana yells at her, while getting her lasso out, the archers in the army are readying their bows, waiting for a signal to fire. Raven doesn't take her eyes off her opponent, who stands motionless.

"He's already taken everything from us! Our pride! Our dignity! This swine sent Heracles after us, had him and his men violate us!" Raven screams, Diana and many of the army is confused at first before realizing Raven is not seeing the same world as they are. With Raven holding the massive axe in her right hand in an almost casual fashion, Diana take careful aim before throwing her lasso, closing around Ravens left wrist.

"See the truth Raven!" Diana commands. Raven looks around confused before her eyes fall on Ares again, widening for a moment, she trembles in sheer fury as black lightning blasts off her and into the sky and ground before hurling the axe at him followed by s scream of rage. As the axe hits its target, the ground between Ares' feet, Raven collapses head first on the ground. Before slowly passing out she changes back into her human guise and whispers a single word, one only Ares hears.

"Pity, maybe another day then." He says while he wrenches the dented weapon out of the ground, completely oblivious to the army staring at him.

"Be gone you fiend!" Diana commands him, her eyes almost glowing with the hatred she feels for the god in the pit.

"Now, now, my dear, I was only asking her a simple question, but you are right there are more wars to be fought, more blood to be spilt, one day it will be waged here." Diana can't see it but she knows he is smiling underneath the helmet he is wearing, a thunderclap is heard and a bolt of lightning strikes Ares from the clear sky and in an instant he is gone.

"Raven? Raven can you hear me?" A female voice above her can be heard, as she opens her eyes the shape above her is at first a black shade taking up most of the white world everything else seems to be in. Her vision slowly coming back into focus she recognizes the shade as Diana, but not her surroundings. Closing her eyes again she nods that she hears her. "Raven, wake up!" Raven groggily opens her eyes again, trying to focus on the still somewhat blurry Diana leaning over her.

"I am…awake." Raven manages, feeling awfully dry and raw in her throat, Diana hands her a ceramic cup of cool water. Diana waits until she has finished her drink; Raven seems to focus better now.

"Do you know what happened?" She asks, Raven thinks for a moment before answering.

"My sisters and I were awoken during the night by Artemis, who wanted to take us for a run in the jungle after stumbling around in the dark for hours we found our way back. Next morning we found Artemis had managed to wound herself, I made fun of her because of it and got her to chase us. We decided to split up in the market square, I headed back to the barrack after hiding for a while. I met him there and he did something…" Ravens voice trails off as she suddenly seems to be relieving what Ares had her see; she squeezes her eyes shut, a single tear rolls down her cheek.

"Raven what did he make you see?" Raven sniffs once before reopening her eyes to answer Diana without actually looking at her.

"I saw your people, I saw you mother, I saw what Hercules did to us…them. I thought I was one of you, I was there…dear Azar the soldiers they…" Raven breaks down completely at the intensity of the false memory; Diana herself is close to tears as she hugs Raven close, rocking her gently back and forth, she lets her cry her heart out on her shoulders before she drifts off into sleep again, breaking a few items in the room in the process before she calms herself down. Leaving her under the sheet the princess quietly exits the room, outside she is met by the group Raven was supposed to be training with now, along with Queen Hippolyta.

"How is she?" Hippolyta asks.

"She is asleep now, but how she will be when she wakes up is another matter." Diana says quietly, getting concerned looks from the group.

"What did the Deceiver do?" Artemis asks sternly.

"He made her believe she was one of us, the day Heracles came for you; he made her experience it all." Diana says with anger in her voice, no one should have to go through what her sisters had, the Philipus gasps, Io puts on a face of disgust, Artemis, Penelope and Antiope scowls and Hippolyta lowers her head in sadness.

"Let me know when she wakes up." Hippolyta says before leaving, Diana excuses herself as well assuring she would be back in a moment. Making her way quickly to her own quarters, she pulls out her League communicator from a table, dialing up the number for a certain man in Gotham.

"Bruce? Its Diana, we have a problem here." She says.

"_Go ahead Diana?"_

"Ares decided to try and make Raven his own champion, she refused but he did something to her before making the offer in an effort to drive her mad with rage."

"_Go on." _Bruce says wanting details.

"He made her live through what my people went through in ancient times." The line is quiet for a moment, besides Hawkman, Bruce was the only Leaguer Diana knew of that knew the details of the legend of the Amazons even before her own appearance.

"_Is she ok?"_

"Physically she is fine as it was all in her head, but what the vision may do to her mind I am worried about. To her, the memory will be as real as a genuine one." This Diana only knew from others Ares had visited, because her proximity to the Lasso of Truth generally shielded her from Ares' direct manipulation.

"_Do what you can for her Diana, but keep this quiet for now until we know how affected she is."_ The line goes dead after that, leaving Diana to return to her watch.

Raven awakens later, immediately feeling the presence of someone else in the room with her; she is suddenly wide awake fearing Ares had returned. She calms down when she sees it is Queen Hippolyta who is sitting in a damaged chair across the room. She notices the room itself is in light blue, polished ceramic tiles, with tiles covering the lower half of the walls being parted from the upper by blue snaking patterns, a single window shows the view over the southern half of the city. Besides the bed she is in and the chair, the room is otherwise bare, save for the wreckage that used to be a cubboard and a potted plant.

"You are awake." Hippolyta notices.

"I am…your Highness." Raven herself is unsure why, but it just seems more right to call her that now, like she used to in the memory. Having seen and experienced what she had gone through, Raven felt new and great respect for the mysterious Queen.

"You saw what happened to us?" Hippolyta asks quietly.

"Ares made me believe I was there, with your people. I heard you make you plea to the Gods and what you had to accept to be granted freedom."

"Did you fight? Did you seek revenge for what was done to you?" Hippolyta is indirectly asking if Raven would have joined Hippolyta's own sister, Antiope the Elder, in seeking out their tormentors, forming the vengeful Bana-Mighdall tribe.

"I fought to be free, I was running to you when Heracles barred my path, but his image blurred and I thought I saw Ares as well. I guess I saw red at that point, being met by him and what he did." Hippolyta sighs at this and she looks down, but Raven again has that odd sense that Hippolyta knows more than she is letting on, because her sadness is genuine but it seems...old. Raven dismisses it as a reopening of the Queens own wounds.

"I am sorry we have brought this upon you Raven, no one should have to experience what we went through in those days. If you wish it, I have asked Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, to remove the memories from your mind." Raven looks down into her sheets in thought, every woman she knew would have agreed almost immediately.

"No, the memory is there now, and for all the pain that comes from it, I feel I understand your people better now. And I fear that it may simply be returned to me, one day, if removed. If you will allow it, your Highness, I would like to complete the training you planned for me despite this." Raven says quietly as she now has a sudden desire to prove herself to Hippolyta as well.

"You may child, you may." Hippolyta smiles slightly, relived that her visitor apparently has turned the atrocious memory into determination.

"Batman? It's me again." Diana announces into her communicator.

"_How is she?"_ Batman cuts to the chance this time, since he has been expecting this call.

"She's more determined than you gave her credit for, she wished to be allowed to continue the course my mother planned for her."

"_Good, but keep an eye on her just in case."_

"I wouldn't worry about that Bruce, my mother asked Morpheus to erase her memory of it if Raven wished it, and she declined." Batman is quiet for a moment.

"_Let's just hope she can avoid similar incidents when she reaches the others. I haven't told the others of this, will you let her know that?"_

"Of course, I am actually planning on taking a more active hand here, but I will let you know how it fares." Diana assures before closing the line. She was actually slightly amazed at the woman she had brought with her, there were few she knew that could claim to have fought Ares and come out a victor. Against Ares there is no victory in fighting him, that is his victory as the god of bloodshed, to defeat him is to turn your back on violence and needless deaths. Add to that she had to experience the trials of her people and still wished to continue rather than leave, even after being offered the escape a few of her sisters still craved.

"So I guess that was the side you were denied to use?" Io asks after the group had finally managed to be allowed into Ravens chamber.

"It is, but I have other powers just as I am." Raven answers from her bedside, with the four others crowding around her, Artemis keeping to herself behind them.

"Well I can guess why her highness decided to keep that quiet." Antiope jokes, getting a chuckle from the others.

"So you really believed you were there, with us all those years ago?" Penelope asks somewhat timidly.

"I did, I remember seeing you and Antiope fight your way clear after breaking out, I remember seeing you take down a small platoon of men with nothing but your hands and Antiope shooting out the eyes of at least three of Heracles' minotaur's. It all seemed so real, until Ares took on Heracles' guise and barred my path to the rest of you."

"I ended up on a score of four minotaur's and three harpies that day, the last of the man-beasts fell as we made our way into the parted sea." Antiope mentions while staring into the distance, obviously replaying the battle in her head.

"So who would you have joined if you had to make the choice?" Artemis asks from behind the others, drawing their attention. "Just curious if she would have been a Bana or Themysciran."

"I will have to disappoint you Artemis, I would have followed Hippolyta." Artemis sighs in slight disappointment as Raven gets out of bed and stretches resulting in a series of cracks from her back.

"You know I still owe you lot for laughing at me," Artemis' words make the others look at her again "but since Raven battled Ares to a standstill, I will give you to the count of 30 as a head start." The redhead smiles, the others snigger as they hurry out of the room.

"No, don't try to explain it to me Cy! My head will blow up with all your techno-mumbo-jumbo!" The frantic changeling warns his cybernetic buddy, who looks down at his work again. Beastboy is now officially on leave from the Patrol until they get Starfire back, Vic has taken his leave from studies as well, since he knows most of the stuff anyways and just needs the exam papers to prove it.

"Well you did ask what I was doing Green Bean." Cyborg sighs; it is hard to work when you have Beastboy around, who is mildly technologically impaired while extremely curious at the same time. Garfield had moved in with him in his apartment yesterday and promptly trashed the place in typical Beastboy fashion by pressing every button he could reach and taking up a considerable amount of refrigerator space with his tofu.

"So you hear anything about Rae?" Cyborg isn't surprised if the green man still has a soft spot for the mysterious woman he had a crush on for a fair amount of time. Although he doesn't know for certain, he speculates that Beastboy thinks he will have a better shot at a woman with unusual skin, like himself, than a regular looking one. Of course having the fun loving and very social Beastboy and the moody loner in the same room has in the past often proved to be a dangerous cocktail.

"Rob says she is doing fine, according to Batman. But he also said that Bat's got a call from Wonder Woman yesterday, but Bats wouldn't tell him anything about it." Cyborg lies down on a roller board before sliding under the ship-in-progress.

"Recon it had something to do with Rae?" Beastboy asks while looking at Victors bald head from the other side.

"I dunno, could be just Bat's and the Amazon were flirting and Rob is just overly worried."

"Still think Robby got an eye for her?" Cyborg smiles.

"Yeah she has his eye, but if it's mutual? Who knows? Its Raven we are talking about." Beastboy sighs, knowing he might as well give up now if Nigthwing was after her as well. "Don't sweat it B, there's a woman for you as well, who knows, maybe Rae is just making you sweat."

"I'll be dehydrated when she comes around." Gar sighs disappointed before falling quiet for a moment, staring at Victors scalp. "Cy, your growing hair!" He yells suddenly.

"What!? OW!" Cyborg knocks his head into the skeleton frame of the ship over him in his rush to get up, much to Beastboy's amusement. "Why you little…" Cyborg's angry growl makes Beastboy look up before turning into a humming bird and flies out of the workshop with the swearing Cyborg in pursuit wielding a wrench.

Nightwings P.O.V.

"Come on Bruce, could you at least clue me in what that last transmission form Diana was about?" I know I am acting like a child and I know Bruce is enjoying it somewhere. Since he is just giving me one of those 'I know more than you and I'm not telling' smiles, he actually looks pretty comfy at the computer with a cup of coffee in one hand and a paper file in the other, while in costume.

"Raven is fine Richard, what was said between me and Diana was private." I just stare at him, at the mention of private.

"Bruce you practically know every Leaguer's underwear size!"

"I don't, but I know a man who does." He says with amusement in his voice, I just sigh. "If it will make you calm down, yes the conversation was about Raven, she had a small disagreement with one of the inhabitants of the island and they got into a fight, both are fine according to Diana. And Raven insisted on continuing afterwards, if you want any more you will have to call up Raven yourself." He takes another sip of his coffee.

"You're impossible you know?" I ask, knowing direct communication was off limits.

"Yup, I know." He says with another of those smiles before taking a sip.

3rd person P. O. V.

Raven is losing her sense of time on Themyscira, it all just seems to blend together for her, each day is hot and full of training, the others say it's the same to them because they just live a day at a time. Actually since Ares, she has noticed a considerable shift in the nation's behavior towards her. When she had hidden in the market square she had noticed the others giving her the looks that told volumes of their distrust of outsiders. Apparently word had gotten out what Ares had done to her, and now the others seemed to accept her as one of their own or at the least respected her. The days became better when the 'High and mighty' Princess Diana, as Artemis called her, joined their group for training, leaving her Wonder Woman armor at home, even moving into the barracks with them. Diana actually proves to be anything other than what you'd think of a princess, which she proves by letting Artemis lead, which spurs the redhead to make the training longer and harder. It is during this time Raven notices Io openly flirting with Diana, something the others tell her has been going on for years but will never really amount to anything because of the mysterious Batman and Io's love for her forge. Right now they are having lunch on the cliffs facing the outer ocean, having spent most of the day navigating the jungle by leaping from tree to tree.

"You know, I never got to thank you for this." Raven says to Diana as she holds up her canister, which still contains godswater. Diana looks up at her a bit confused.

"I don't know what you are referring to Raven, what's in it?" The others look up as well in surprise.

"You mean you didn't issue Raven the godswater, your Highness?" Penelope asks, echoing the others thoughts, Artemis just grows red in her face, since she didn't know Raven was receiving it, as the only other one.

"Godswater? No I didn't." The silence seems to crush down on the group for a moment. "Raven can you describe the one who has been delivering it?"

"Umm, I'm not sure I can, it's always been one wearing a hood and cloak the covers all of her. She seemed hunched over, but she never says anything." The others nod obviously knowing who Raven is talking about, Diana doesn't look angry but she does stare at Philipus.

"Am I correct that I see Magala's hand in this Philipus?" The young woman's cheeks redden at the attention.

"You do your Highness." Philipus confirms, while shrinking under Diana's gaze. "She asked me to keep quiet about it."

"Well, she may be mad, but she has never done anything out of spite or without purpose." Diana relents, wondering if Hippolyta knows, Magala did sometimes do things without the Queens permission that otherwise required it.

"So Raven, now that we have seen your other side, want to tell us why the Deceiver called you the Child of Destruction?" Philipus asks eager to have the attention thrown onto someone else; Raven is quiet for a moment before answering.

"My mother is Arella born on Earth, my father is the demon called Trigon." She says with a hard tone, while staring out over the sea.

"The Great Unmaker?!" Penelope asks, besides Diana the other act surprised at the revelation.

"He preferred, the Terrible, I believe. But don't worry, as I've been told, Raven slew him some years ago." Diana quips.

"Next we will hear, is that she went up Mount Olympus and came back with the beard of Zeus." Antiope adds with a smile.

"If he doesn't woo her, like he has a tendency to do." Artemis adds, receiving Ravens glare for it.

"Now, now fair Artemis, you mustn't speak ill of a god who can hear your prayers." A deep voice sounds to their right, the group of women look to see a big, powerfully built, man with long white beard and hair, wearing a light purple toga and carrying a zigzagging staff made of yellow energy walking towards them. Raven is surprised to see the others scramble down off their rocks down to the beach before bowing to the stranger, something inside her kicks her to do the same, if Diana and Artemis are this eager to show this man respect, she should as well. The old man just smiles at their scrambling to greet him, seemingly amused by it, while Raven notices he is also strange, like Ares but in a different way. "No need to abase yourselves, it is after all I who am visiting your home. Fear not Artemis of Bana-Mighdall or Antiope of Themyscira I take no ill of what you said." The man says with a jovial tone in his rumbling voice that reminds Raven of far away thunder.

"But what brings you to the realm of mortal's High-Father?" Diana asks, Raven is certain now that she is addressing Zeus, ruler of the Greek gods.

"My wayward son with my wife Hera has overstepped his divine boundaries in seeking a new champion for himself, I come to offer apologies for his transgression, now where is the victim?" He adds the last part in a jovial tone, before he lays eyes on Raven, who again feels rooted to the ground; his stare feels like its grounding her. "No need to be shy child, we of Olympus knows of you and of your friends in that poorly named group." Raven smiles nervously at the god, not knowing how to take it, the Greek Gods had after all stuffed the actual Titans into their version of hell; Tartarus. "We have kept a closer eye on you after that affair with your farther, and we hope to see more." The god pats Raven on the head as if she was a child, looking up a little she realizes Zeus is actually head and shoulders taller than all of them. Raven feels a strange tingling at his touch.

"Th…thank you, sir." She manages, Zeus continues to smile.

"Now I must get going, keep up your training warriors, and young Philipus do thank Magala for interpreting the vision I sent her." Like with Ares a thunderclap is heard and lightning strikes Zeus before he disappears, leaving the six gaping women behind. A few seconds after Zeus has left, Phillipus falls over backwards; Diana, Artemis, Penelope and Io regain their composition while Ravens jaw pretty much hangs open, his touch had freaked her out.

"Was that…?" Is all she manages.

"Yes." Diana answers shortly.

"Did he..?" She continues while motioning at her hair that is doing a dance all on their own.

"He did, and you need to find something to ground yourself with." Artemis says while remembering the time when Zeus had made her long hair stand up straight for a day.

"He planned…?" By now her mind was going over that there were actual Gods **above** her that kept an eye on her and not just one below her.

"Apparently, we better let Hippolyta know about this. So who wants to carry Philipus?" Penelope asks intentionally declining to do it herself with the same line. Artemis sighs before motioning for Antiope to grab Philipus' shoulders while she takes her legs. Diana takes the lead with Artemis and Antiope behind her, then Io and lastly Raven who stumbles after them in a daze.

"So mighty Zeus descended from Olympus to apologize for Ares' behavior and revealing he's had Magala provide Raven with godswater?" Hippolyta asks the group in front of her, Philipus still a little shaky but now awake, and Raven still with a somewhat glazed stare in her eyes.

"It was so, mother." Diana replies, looking up at the Queen on her throne. Hippolyta sighs while rubbing her eyes, while visits from the gods are not unheard of on this island, two within such a short span of time is exceptional, that Zeus is one of them makes it even more exceptional.

"He did no more?" Hippolyta asks while staring at Raven, who is apparently seeing something other than the throne room, she at least wasn't meeting her gaze or even appearing to notice it.

"He padded her on the head, your Highness." Antiope adds.

"I see. Io would you take care of the current, Diana I will have words with you in private."

Raven regains her senses in a dark room that smells like burnt coal and heated metal, a loud hiss makes her sit up briskly, noticing a metal wire has been tied to her right arm. Looking around herself confirms her suspicion, she is in a forge.

"Good, you're back amongst us." Io notices from the shadows.

"Yeah, where am I?" Raven replies wondering how she got here.

"Why you are in my forge, if you feel up to it, I'll give you a tour." Io says with a smile as she steps into view wearing a brown leather apron and heavy gloves.

"So this is where you usually work?"

"Live is a better term, I've got all I need here." Io says while helping Raven off the wooden gurney she been occupying before removing the wire.

"So what was that for?" Raven asks, motioning at the wire.

"Zeus has a habit of leaving a current behind in whoever he touches, it's never proven fatal, but people do get a shock out of touching the person with it. A few years ago I found out a way to store the power, but have yet to find anything to risk using it on."

"Uh-hu… So what's that?" Raven asks while pointing at a large machine standing at the back, it looks one of those Saturday morning cartoon doomsday weapons, with a large spherical central piece standing on a small cart and a narrow laser-like focusing point at the front.

"That is a prototype, if I can get it to work it is meant to increase a person's natural healing rate." Io explains while walking over to pat the machine.

"So what's keeping you from completing it?"

"I am not really sure; there are a number of flaws I need to address with it. For one thing I have to get the settings right or it will blow holes in people, another problem is power, right now it simply drains everything we have. I've put it on hold for a while now; when I get back to it I hope I can see where it is going wrong."

"Can I ask how it works?" Raven asks as she wonders how far Io had come with such a machine, nothing she knew of was even close to existing in the outside world.

"Well basically it takes whatever power we feed into it and splits it into a spectrum, we need to find the right level of the spectrum to get the effect we want, problem is that we don't know which frequency we are looking for. But just so you know this is both a machine and a magical artifact, I hear the two don't mesh out there." Io doesn't mention that their healers are hopelessly old fashioned and conservative, resulting in their denial of aiding the project.

"I might be able to help with that, I have a limited healing power, I can't mend bones completely but that's about it." Raven smiles at her explanation.

"Whoa, well any help is appreciated, right this way." Io says before leading Raven deeper into her forge.

"Any word from Diana?" Flash asks the three other heroes at the table, or rather the TV screen with Batman on it, Superman is currently in civilian.

"Only short status rapports, Raven is doing well on Themyscira apparently." Batman replies in his usual calm tone, revealing nothing about what he knew.

"So no chance of Diana turning her down I guess?" He knows how stubborn the Princess can be when she has her mind set on something, like taking Batman dancing.

"You're not scared of her are you?" Shayera teases while drawing circles on the table with a finger.

"Sorry but me and our other infernal buddy don't exactly mix." Flash admits the uneasy relationship between him and Etrigan.

"You do tend to make fun of him when you think he can't hear you." J'onn mentions, Flash sighs.

"So what am I supposed to do with her, it's not like I can teach her anything right?"

"We cannot say what would make you trust her or not." J'onn continues.

"Come on help me out here. I can't have her run around Central, she's got red skin and four eyes people would think she was the devil or something." Flash complains.

"She has grey skin, purple hair and one set of eyes actually." Batman corrects. "It's how she prefers it."

"Add that cloak you say she always wears and it just makes her stand out in Central." Flash sighs, the others in the room roll their eyes at him.

"Stop being a baby Wally, when you remember to, you can think a lot faster than anyone here, use it. Even you have standards that people have to meet before you call them buddies." A bored Green Lantern reminds him.

"Think about it Flash." Batman echoes before killing the feed on his end. Flash stares at the table for a moment.

"So Shayera, from one moody woman about another, what do you think?" She just narrows her eyes while staring at him, John sighs.

"Still a pity we can't copy you're healing." Io says while panting alongside Raven. It has been a few days since their meeting with Zeus, Io found out her machine couldn't mimic Ravens healing powers as she speculated they functioned differently than from what she had modeled it for. While Artemis had seemingly grown tired of doing the lap around the island, so now she's mixed frequent stops and obstacles into it, much to Philipus' dismay.

"Well it's probably better you don't build a machine needing a demon to fuel it."

"It's an idea." Io jokes before dodging under a palm tree that's blocking her way.

"Still with us Philipus?" Raven calls behind her, jumping over the tree.

"Barely…sister." The poor woman was having a hard time of keeping up, according to her; it had been decades in the outside world since she had any training like this. The others can see she is hurting, but like Raven she refuses to give up, claiming it was just punishment for not doing it regularly while studying and Raven was having a sense she would not give in when she could keep up. Diana on the other hand willingly stays in the back to help her, that she could run up to Artemis in the lead at will only cements the fact she is the best of them. But she isn't above exhaustion, and that the Princess eventually will show it makes her all the more human to Raven. Like most of the outside world Raven had the idea grown in her head that Diana was only one short step of being a true goddess. Rumor would have it she truly ascended to that level once, but left it behind in favor of her old life.

It had been like this for the last few days, no incidents and no breakups in the training, Raven is growing content with this, and she is actually beginning entertaining the idea to stay, if allowed. Everyone here just seemed to accept her, in contrast to the three years of hostility in Jump City it is a change she enjoys. Only the memory of Starfire being in Azar knows what state and her friends keep her from asking. The days here had even made her enjoy the sun a little more; even after she found out she could still get sunburn, which only resulted in a slight darkening of her skin. Something her friends would have feinted over back in the day.

They all know tomorrow is going to be special, but only Diana knows why, she had informed them that tomorrows training has been canceled but would say nothing more about it. Like in the barracks they others had begin speculating in Diana's presence as to why, only earning a few smirks at the more farfetched theories, like a field trip into Tartarus. Raven has quietly realized that her time on Themyscira is coming to an end, which saddens her.

Later that evening Raven is meditating down by the harbor enjoying the setting sun, making sure she remains on the ground since she has yet to be told she is allowed to use her powers, which actually troubled her a little while Artemis' swelling face was at its worst. Her quiet peace is interrupted by the presence of another, the presence is revealed to be Diana, Raven couldn't pinpoint why, but she can tell Diana apart from any of the other Amazons just by the emotions she emits. Silently she gets to her feet and bows to the Princess, as she feels she should.

"You don't need to do that outside the palace." Diana says with a hint of amusement, which turns to concern. "You seem a little distracted?" Raven stands up straight, her eyes tell of sadness inside.

"My time here is ending soon, isn't it?" She asks solemnly.

"It is, the others are waiting after all." Raven sighs at Diana's reply. "Seems Themyscira has made its impression on you." Diana notes, trying to lift her spirits.

"It has. After three years of defending a city, were I felt I was barely tolerated, maybe even hated, your home truly is a paradise to me. Here I feel like I am really accepted, no one here is giving me the stares or whisper behind my back, even after they all saw what I turn into." Diana sits down next to her, Raven follows suit.

"We are a warrior people at heart Raven, we respect great warriors when we see them and that you engaged the Deceiver for our sakes and survived makes you out as one of the greatest." Diana is silent for a moment before continuing. "Can I ask if you were yourself in what the Deceiver showed you?"

"I was, I remember having memories of living in ancient Themyscira as a seamstress, but I don't remember anything about how I came to be or that I was something different. I remember the night Heracles came to burn it down and our torments in the dungeons. When we were set free and I was blocked by him, I changed in order to avenge us all and to ensure he did not follow you, I don't remember consciously doing it, it just happened. When I changed, I saw it was Ares barring my path and not Heracles, I figured he was in league with his half-brother, as had long been the rumor, so I charged in regardless. At least my fight with him would keep him occupied even if it was hopeless." Diana smiles sadly; it is a terrible memory to have forced upon you.

"So what happened to Artemis that day?" She asks. "With the face that is?"

"She's acknowledged that she had simply gotten lost during the night, and that she had tripped and hit a rock. She didn't get back before she had to meet us outside for the morning run." Raven smiles at the memory of that morning meeting, Diana does the same at the memory of the irate redhead she met.

The pair spends the remaining light of the day engaging in small talk; somehow Raven finds it easy to talk to the Diana about things she would take with her into the grave with most other people. When the night watch is called, they part, Diana for the palace and Raven for the replacement barrack she is sharing with the others. When she enters the others snicker before implying Diana had an eye for her, Raven just dismisses them with an amused glare.


	20. The Amazon

The next day comes with little warning; the barrack awakes as normal at first light. After breakfast they engage in a round of meditation, which has become their custom as it helped them deal with Artemis. After they finish, they move out to find Artemis waiting as usual, they quickly form a line. With Diana having left them last night in favor of the palace, so they aren't surprised to find her missing now.

"Ok troops, no chatter, follow me, double time." Artemis says before running off, letting the others follow. Unusually Artemis leads them through the city, which Raven notes is strangely short of people today. Through the main streets and small alleys they run, with Raven getting utterly lost as a consequence, running down an alley they all suddenly stop, as Artemis is knocking on the wooden door blocking their path. The door is opened by someone and she motions for the others to enter after her, the corridor behind the door smells like sand and it's dark. "Ok, now most of you will know where we are, as for you Raven, we are now beneath the Amphitheatre. Now we all suit up before we meet the crowd." Ravens eyes harden, knowing Artemis was about to get that fight she wanted, and with a home crowd watching.

Finding a light suit of leather armor and a helmet prepared for her, along with a spear, a short sword with a belt and scabbard and finally a round shield that she would have had to use her powers to lift back in the old days. As they are all suited up they line up in a narrow corridor with a door in front of them, above them they can hear the voices of excited chatter. Raven feels like she has been tossed into a remake of Gladiator.

"Ok, when we enter, we form a line and face the Queen, she will give us instructions about what is to happen from there." Artemis speaks with a cheerful tone Raven hasn't heard her use before but she can feel the excitement coming from her, not to mention that which is coming from above. They wait in silence for a moment before they hear a chorus of trumpets being sounded and the doors are opened. They emerge blinking into the light of the morning sun and the cheer of the crowd, they all follow Artemis who jogs into the center of the round arena with its floor halfway hidden in the shadows, which Raven notes is several hundred meters across, and form the line with her. Every Amazons must be here, Raven notes at the spectator rows are packed to capacity and in the center of the section in front of her is a raised area to the north where Hippolyta is seated with Diana in her uniform standing to her left. Hippolyta rises from her seat and quiets the crowd with a raised hand waiting until there is complete silence before speaking with a loud and commanding voice:

"Sisters! We are gathered in this place of honor, to bear witness to the battle prowess of the warriors we see before us; Artemis of Bana-Mighdall!" Artemis raises her spear in acknowledgement of the Queen and the cheers from the crowd. "Antiope the Hunter!" More cheers. "Penelope the Heavy Handed!" Again cheers. "Philipus the Wise!" And again. "Io the Crafter" Again. "And Raven of Azerath!" Ravens small and recently appeared fear of awkward silence at the mention of her name here is horribly shamed away as she receives a cheer as loud as the others while raising her spear. "All of you have trained hard these last days, today you will show the fruits of your training. Your first challenge will be archery!"

The Queen sits down amidst the cheers of the crowd while the group in the arena moves to acquire their bows and arrows from two guards standing at the exit opposite the one they entered. Depositing their shields and spears they move back, into the center to face the Queen again while the targets, hard pressed bales of hay, are being set up behind them, Hippolyta rises again when they are prepared.

"The competition's victor will be decided from an overall score, we wish to see what you have all learned! You may begin!" Hippolyta nods at them for them to commence before sitting down. The group turns around and walks to the line a guard has drawn in the sand with her sword.

"Target is at 50 meters, archers draw!" The woman yells for all to hear, they all reach behind them to draw from the quiver on their backs to stand in a ready position with an arrow on the bow pointing at the ground. "Aim!" They all raise their weapons, pulling the arrow back. "Fire!"

They all hit within the red circle surrounding the red center; Antiope hits dead center, Artemis hits the outer side of it, Penelope, Philipus, Io and Raven all hit inside the un-painted area outside of it, to Ravens dismay, hers is the one farthest out by her own estimation. Two guards quickly run in to take measurements and remove the arrows before moving the bales back. "Target is at 75 meters, archers draw!" Raven takes the second between commands to calm herself, ignoring the thousands of women watching. "Aim!" A second passes. "Fire!"

Again Antiope hits dead center; Raven speculates she could hit the center of a target over 700m away if given the proper bow for it. Artemis' shot has moved a bit out into the unpainted area, Penelope has remained there. Io and Philipus' shots have moved into the second painted circle. Raven own shot actually seemed to have inched a little closer to the center than her first shot. After measuring the results and clearing them, the targets are again moved; this time to 100meters. Raven uses all the time she can to control her breathing. After shooting, the final measurements are made and the results are dispatched by a runner who appears by Hippolyta's side handing her the rolled up results. Hippolyta reads it once before nodding while remaining quiet about the score. The group relieves themselves of their bows and arrows before again forming the line and facing the Queen.

"Commendable shooting, all of you!" Hippolyta praises. "Your next challenge will be unarmed combat!" They could all guess that armed combat would follow after this. The group moves to the side where they are offered water and a place to put their helmets and swords before they head back into the center, apparently it is Hippolyta's style to do it like this. "Penelope has trained you well, now you will reveal what she has taught you, guards!" Hippolyta calls and the two side doors to their sides open letting in three overly muscled women out of each. Had their stern faces and short hair been hidden beneath a helmet, Raven would have thought they were men, but these are members of Hippolyta's Royal Guard. The women march silently and uniformly forming a line in front of the others, also facing the Queen.

"We live to serve, your Highness!" They speak in unison.

"The Sister behind you is your opponent. Fight to immobilize!" Hippolyta calls, the guards immediately jump forwards. Raven cringes inwardly, her opponent is half a head taller than her, has blond hair and blue eyes and probably twice the mass, for some reason she thinks of Terra having undergone a steroid treatment and a haircut.

"Come then little Sister; show me what you can do." The guard leers, apparently convinced she will easily overpower her smaller opponent as she takes up the classical wrestling stance Raven noticed the Amazons tended to favor, she couldn't win a match against such a bruiser like that, fortunately she doesn't have to. Raven takes up the fighting stance she took up when fighting Batman, a somewhat surprised look crosses her opponents face.

"I am ready, Sister." Raven says in a calm voice. The guard smiles before she breaks into a run, intending to catch her target and bear her to the ground. Raven waits for her to get into range, timing it just right she jumps into the air, curling her legs up under her while in the air, completing the cycle she feels her opponent's hair under her feet. Waiting for the contact she leaps off her opponents head into another somersault before landing on her feet, her opponent crashing to the ground behind her is the only sound she is searching for. Turning around, Raven spots Artemis busy in a fistfight with her opponent, Philipus struggling under hers, Antiope and Io are wresting around with theirs and Penelope walking away from her unconscious one.

"You have tricks, I see." Raven's opponent barbs while getting up, holding a hand to her head before wiping the sand from her face.

"I have those too, but I'm not allowed to use them." Raven says matter-of-factly, before baiting her opponent with a hand gesture. "And I don't need them for you, Sister." Raven smirks as the steam rises off the woman's head, before she charges again. This time Raven moves before the female juggernaut is within striking range, she turns around backwards on her right foot, jumping onto her left foot when her back is turned to her opponent, she quickly turns around while bring her right foot up, which slams into the left side of her opponents head sending her crashing sideways to the ground as Raven jumps back out of the crash zone. The woman gets back on her feet quickly though, but everyone can see she can't fight as she stumbles and sways towards Raven, taking the last step her body seems to figure out her head has shut down and the butched woman collapses in the sand. Raven checks for any damage on the woman before backing away to join Penelope leaning against the wall and a sulking Philipus who's sitting on the ground.

"Glad you didn't use that on me." Penelope says with a smile, before turning her attention to the remaining fights.

"Wish I had your moves." Philipus groans.

"Took me years to learn, and I didn't have a teacher per se." The roundhouse kick was one of Robin's favorite moves back in the day and Raven had been determined to learn it after seeing its effectiveness. They are joined shortly thereafter by Artemis, who finally pounded her opponent into submission. Io follows after actually wrestling her opponent into a head lock, lastly Antiope walks over grumbling over getting sand in her eyes.

The three conscious guards and the group of six forms a single line facing the Queen after Antiope had a chance to get the sand out of her face. "An impressive displays all of you; go rest and choose your armaments for the next round of armed combat!" Raven can feel the anguish washing off Philipus as they exit the arena. It is displayed to the others as she almost collapses on the bench where they found their armor.

"Philipus?" Io asks concerned.

"I'm useless." She mutters. "I can't fight and Magala takes forever to teach anything, I might as well just leave…" The sight brings a flashback to Raven, where she was an eight year old girl facing Robin who had come to retrieve her from hell.

"Philipus, look at me." Raven orders, getting the Amazon to look at her. "I was born only so my father could kill me when he had take over the world. I lived most of my life with that and it broke me down, when he finally came and sent me to hell someone came down to save me, I had no hope of being any use, but I was convinced to think otherwise and we prevailed because of what I was given, hope. Keep hoping and training Philipus and you will get what you want, it will be a long and hard road but in the end you will be grateful for taking it, and you have eternity." Raven adds the last part with a smile; Philipus quickly rises up and hug Raven.

"I will, I will keep hoping." She sobs into Ravens shoulder before regaining herself. "But now I have to kick your butt you know."

"Sure you will, now let's find a weapon for you."

"Blunted…" Artemis grumbles somewhere behind them, testing the edge of a sword.

Seven minutes later the group is back outside with their helmets back on, standing in a line. Philipus is armed with a spear and a shield, Artemis with a thin two handed sword, Penelope with two small axes, Io with a large, but light, mace, Antiope has taken a shield and a sword and lastly Raven has a single axe and a shield that doesn't weigh a ton. Hippolyta speaks again. "For this final round, we know how tempers can flare; there will be rules to follow! Match is decided when first blood is drawn! It is not allowed here to strike your opponent while she is on the ground! If one of you remain on the ground for more than 3 seconds you have lost! Break these rules and you will be disqualified!" The groups remain motionless, waiting for the Queen to continue. "Your opponents are: Philipus against Io, Penelope against Antiope and Raven against Artemis.

"Should have picked a longer weapon, Sister." Artemis smirks, while they fan out facing each other, while doing a few practice swings to warm up.

"Hopefully it is just long enough." Raven replies before taking her helmet off, it's too warm and it blocks her vision. Artemis does the same before leaning into a ready stance, holding the handle of her weapon at her shoulder while the point is aimed at the ground. Raven falls into hers as she draws the axe behind her as she holds the shield in front of her. Artemis nods at her before she swings her weapon in a huge arc in front of her Raven brings up her shield to deflect the blow.

To Raven there is no active thinking in this, Artemis is too fast with her weapon and she is desperately trying to block each attack that is immediately turned into another. The pair is so absorbed by their fight that they don't notice Philipus piercing Io's shoulder or Antiope using her shield to send Penelope to the ground with her axes flying in each direction. Something inside Raven's head is yelling at her to do something aggressive, she is tiring from being on the defensive all the time and it would only be a matter of time before Artemis finds a hole. In a blur of motion the two fighters strike simultaneously before pulling apart, Raven with a small bleeding stretch on her right cheek, Artemis grows a wide smile before Raven smiles back while pointing at her shoulder, Artemis looks down on her own right shoulder, seeing a small bleeding scratch there. Artemis looks into the sky once before speaking:

"Well fought sister."

"You too, sister." Raven replies, before the pair is met by a single guard who notices both wounds.

"Winner?" She asks.

"Draw." Artemis says before walking over to pick up her helmet and orders the others to form the line. Raven nods her agreement to the result and the guard runs off to inform the Queen, who reviews it without displaying any emotion or surprise. The crowd seems to hold its breath as she rises to announce the result.

"An outstanding display of valor and fighting prowess! After witnessing your valor here today I will now announce the victors!" The crowd literally falls mute with anticipation. "In armed combat they both wounded each other simultaneously! In unarmed they pummeled and kicked their opponents away! And in archery they scored the same at 75 meters, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall was more precise at 50m, yet Raven of Azerath improved her aim at 100meters! They are therefore declared joint winners!" The crowd roars in joy at the results, Raven is speechless Artemis is surprised. "Go receive treatment for any wounds you have, when you return, the Champion of the Gods has a request of her own to make!" Hippolyta makes herself heard over the roar of the crowd, the group bows at her before it heads out into the armory they arrived in.

"So you wanna heal this?" Io says while pointing at her shoulder, with slight smile. Raven smiles back before summoning the energy that closes the wound as she touches it. "Nice." Io replies as she tests the wounded area

"No problem, so anyone else with injuries?" Raven asks the wide eyed group. "How about you Artemis?"

"No thank you sister, if it scars I will have something to remember you by." The redhead replies with a smile.

"You…you can heal as well?" Philipus asks as Raven tends to her own wound.

"Yes." Raven says shortly.

"You better write a list of what you can do." Penelope says with a smile.

"Sister, I was ordered to give this to you." A guard barges in and hands Raven a folded piece of cloth, her cloak. "And to call you to the main arena." She says before exiting. Sitting with it in her hands Raven is actually reluctant to wear it, for one thing she fears she will cook with it on ,another thing is that it represents who she in the outside world, which just seemed unlike her here.

"Aren't you going to wear it?" Antiope asks noticing Raven's tension.

"I fear I might become someone else if I do, it's like it represents a different person from another world." Raven says.

"It's a piece of cloth Raven; it's what is underneath it that matters." Artemis' words remind Raven of a few men she knows, the Bat-clan and Slade most notably. They were different men without their masks.

"You know, I actually told someone else something like that not too long ago, thanks for reminding me."

"You're welcome, you owe me a rematch." The redhead replies with a smile, Raven just smiles back. She quickly fastens the cloak around her but leaves the hood down and lets the cape fall behind her shoulders.

"You recon Diana wants to fight you?" Io says over her shoulder just loud enough to be heard over the cheering crowd as they enter the arena again.

"She's wanted a rematch since I reacted kinda strongly to her lasso." Raven admits as she takes up the left flank.

"Really?"

"Yeah, now shush." Raven nods to the royal pair as they step onto their platform, Hippolyta takes her throne while Diana steps forward and spreads her hands above her, gesturing for attention and silence.

"Warriors of Themyscira! Sisters! We have seen great valor and battle prowess today, yet we have not seen it all! One amongst those in the arena has been hiding her true strength from us! I challenge you now Raven of Azerath, show me your strength!" Diana looks down at the purple haired woman who lets on a slight smile.

"I accept you challenge your highness!" She says while pulling her hood up, the others walk out to the side while Raven floats into the middle of the arena. Diana lets on a slight smile before she flies down towards her at breakneck speed.

The arena is silent when they expect Diana to collide with her target; she ends up passing through a puff of smoke. Turning around she looks at the empty space, the moment's hesitation is all Raven needs. "HAAYYIIA!" Diana looks up in time to catch Ravens sandaled heel across her temple sending her reeling. Raven keeps up the pressure by punching and kicking while teleporting, not letting Diana have a chance to recover. Diana senses the blows, but they don't do much damage, even when aided by the godswater and the training, Diana is still the Champion of the Gods for a reason. Which she demonstrates by sending one hand swinging, to catch Raven in the gut, sending her flying landing a bit away, landing face down before getting back up.

"You're holding back." Diana states.

"So are you." Raven notes, knowing Diana could easily punch clear through her if she wanted to. She sends her powers into the ground for something useful, finding pieces of broken weapons and arrowheads which she sends flying at Diana, who's arms blur at the speed she moves them at to deflect the impromptu missiles. Raven knows it wouldn't work, the bits are just a distraction so she has the chance to send a huge bolt of black energy racing towards the Princess who just before impact crosses her bracelets in front of her forming a transparent shield that the energy splashes against while she digs her heels into the ground while slowly being pushed backwards. Somehow sensing the stream ending before it actually happens, Diana leaps out of the stream landing next to Raven before she tries to kick her feet away from under her. Raven jumps over the limb to disappear in a puff of smoke, reappearing on the other side of the still crouching Diana before landing a punch to the back of her head; she might as well have punched a mountain for all the good it did.

"You're still holding back, do have to order you to show it?" Diana says with a smile as she stands up.

"As you wish you highness." Raven says before transforming into her demon shape. "Better?"

"Much." Diana replies before punching Raven hard in the head, sending her flying into the far wall, cracking it on impact. "Now I won't have to hold back either." Raven picks herself off the ground, looking a bit groggy. "Yield already?"

"Not quite yet." Raven says before her eyes pulses once and the sand in the arena begins to lift off the ground as if it is caught in the wind, satisfied the sand is not blowing over the spectators, Raven levitates off the ground before heading into the sand storm.

Diana is blinded by the sand that is blowing into her face no matter where she turns, it is a brilliant ploy, Raven could be hiding anywhere in the storm. The impact she feels in her back tells her she had moved up behind her. Regaining her balance she sees the sandstorm dissipating revealing Raven running towards her again before she launches into a series of kicks and punches that leaves Diana with a sore shoulder and a bruised midsection, Diana retaliates into her own combination leaving Raven with bruises on her right arm and left shoulder. The pair continues the dance of kicks and punches occasionally broken up by a bolt of magic or a jump into the air, the crowd is cheering wildly around them cheering them both on. They continue for almost 10 minutes without pause, whenever one would seems beat she would find new reserves to fight on. It all comes to a head when Diana aims a right legged kick at Ravens midsection, Raven almost smiles as she twists aside before driving her knuckles into Diana's tight, earning her a shriek from Diana and a gasp from the crowd. Diana pulls away, almost dragging her leg after her. Raven moves in to finish the job, Diana looks up as Raven walks closer. Timing it just right Diana leans into the same kick Raven used to fell her previous opponent, it connects with the side of Ravens head and she is sent stumbling away, Diana doesn't land as graciously as Raven did however as her injured leg sends her spinning around to face away from Raven. Diana feels a sudden sharp pain moving across her back and swiftly turns around to see a stumbling Raven collapse onto her back. Diana stands, leaning on her left leg, and feels with one hand on her back, which comes back bloody, telling a tale of four horizontal slashes across her back while Raven remains on the ground.

"The challenge has been decided, Diana of Themyscira is the victor!" Hippolyta announces as the crowd burst out in a new bout of cheering.

Looking down at her opponent Diana see's she is trying to get up again, with the match decided she offers her hand, which Raven accepts getting pulled to her feet. The pair ends up leaning on each other as the many bruises and the exhaustion makes themselves know. Supporting each other, the limping Diana and the stumbling Raven make their way over to stand in front of the Queen; they separate and stand apart each managing to keep reasonably still. Raven feels a bit light headed when she carefully changes back into her normal guise, her many bruises becoming more obvious with the change in pigmentation. The Queen holds up her hands gesturing for silence, which the crowd grants her.

"In our many years here, we have rarely witnessed a challenge such as this! And Diana of Themyscira has never had a more honorable adversary in this stadium while carrying the blessings of the Gods! Raven of Azerath your time amongst us has been short, yet you have born witness and experienced the full tragedy that has made us what we are today and shown willingness and courage to fight with the same determination and strength we fought with all those years ago! For this you are to be rewarded, please join me!" Hippolyta steps back from the edge of the platform, indicating they should fly up to her, which they do, bowing respectfully before the Queen after they land. "Raven of Azerath. You may forgive me, but when I sought out Morpheus I asked if you spoke the truth, as he confirmed you were it was then I asked of him to remove the memories from you if you wished it." The Queen says quietly.

"I carry no ill feelings; I have my father and his nature against me." Hippolyta smiles at Ravens reply before she addresses the crowd again.

"Raven of Azerath has commitments to keep in Patriarch's World, of which her stay here was the first task! Many challenges await her in breaking down the mistrust she was cursed with by her dread father, we of Themyscira deem her worthy of the company she seeking the approval of! And we will give her our highest blessing, if she chooses; she will become one of us, an Amazon of Themyscira!" Ravens heart skips a few beats as the volume of the crowd reach new heights. "Will you join us Raven?" The Queen asks.

"I…I would be most honored, my Queen." Raven stammers, Diana behind her and her friends looking up from the arena floor smiling broadly. An armored guard approaches the Queen holding a red cushion with something covered by an equally red piece of cloth.

"Hold out your hands child." The Queen says quietly, Raven does as commanded holding them palms up, guessing what lies beneath cloth. Hippolyta pulls off the cloth revealing two plain silver bracelets. "Diana would you care to do the honors?" The Queen asks, the Princess just smiles and nods taking a step forward to take one of the bracelets from the cushion. Taking Ravens right hand Diana pushes the bracelet over her hand with little resistance, the bracelet settles snugly around her limb. Diana repeats the process with her left hand.

"Then I welcome you; Raven of Themyscira!" Hippolyta yells earning a roar of approval from the crowd.

* * *

Next chapter; settling in and returning :)

Read and review.


	21. In the still of the night

"So whatcha thinking off?" Beastboy asks Nightwing who is visiting Vic in the workshop, Nightwing blinks returning to the real world.

"Sorry spaced out there, I was just wondering how Raven is doing."

"How can she not handle a week and a half on a sunny beach island populated only by gorgeous women?" Beastboy asks like it was rhetoric question, Nightwing and Cyborg roll their eyes at him.

"You seem to be thinking that Raven is wearing your shoes B." Cyborg says. "Besides when did Rae ever 'do' sunny beaches, if this Themyscira is really like the League file claims it is; she will be like a fish out of water, not to mention she will probably cook under that cloak of hers if she is outside."

"Besides Wonder Woman took her there for Amazon training, which I know from Batman is not a stroll in the park." Nightwing mentions, quietly wondering if they would know if Raven had a heatstroke.

"Pfff. I say you both worry too much, it's not like none of us could do it." Gar says while thumping his chest, punctuating his own manliness, Nightwing sighs as his friend's lack of knowledge.

"You do realize your average Amazon is far stronger, faster and more durable than the average human, they don't age and abide by a strict warrior code, in short they would send Red Sonja packing." Cyborg rattles off the stuff he knows about the female warriors, knowing Beastboy had a period of watching the fictional redhead's movies too often. "Oh and they happen to dislike men."

"Just because they haven't met me." Beastboy says while crossing his arms and closing his eyes, sounding like he has been offended. The others give up arguing him out of his fantasy world.

"So how do you think Rae is handling herself over there?" Cyborg asks while tightening a screw.

"Either she is making an enemy out of the entire island by refusing to do anything physical or come out into the sun. Or she is killing herself during training." Somewhere in Nightwing's head he has not quite adapted the fact Raven is no longer the same almost frail girl he worked with years ago.

"I think she just stared at them before going back to her books." Beastboy quips.

"If she can stare Diana away, she's gotta be exceptional." The deep voice belonging to Steel says before the man is actually seen coming out one of the two corridors leading in and out of the workshop.

"Hey Steel, my man, got my engine yet?" Cyborg asks as he stops fastening screws. Nightwing blinks a few times; I was unheard of Cyborg to share his designs with anyone.

"Actually we are having trouble with that and we need your help with it." The metallic hero admits, Cyborg sighs.

"Ok, let's get going then, you can show me your place while we are there." The pair walks out of the room leaving Beastboy and Nightwing behind.

"Soo, why is it we don't just borrow one of the League's ships?" Gar asks while looking at the skeleton of a ship.

"Two reasons, first one we are not **in** the League and two their Javelins don't have the fuel capacity to reach Tamaran and get back, not with any guarantees that is." Gar looks around the workshop a bit.

"So you fancy Raven?" Nightwing sighs at the changeling's question.

Raven spends the next few hours in a state of near disbelief, a part of her, mainly the grey cloaked one, didn't really believe that it had really happened. But it has; she's an Amazon now, a citizen of Themyscira. When she met up with her new friends outside the arena, she was met with a few embraces and many a "Congratulations", Artemis settled with congratulating her and informed her that she would be waiting for the day when Raven returned for the rematch before disappearing. The others and Diana drags her off to find her a room, which turns out to be a small Spartan affair, which is the norm since the fewest Amazon spend many of their waking hours in them, overlooking the southern part of the harbor. After ordering a bookcase Raven is informed that most of the books on Themyscira are written in Hellenistic Greek, she calmed them by replying in that language, to which the others said it is the first time they heard it spoken with an accent. After that she is given a full tour of the island, both her and Diana had completely forgetting their wounds, paying visits to the Royal Library, the small rooms of the others and paying their respects to the graveyard where all fallen Amazons are remembered, even if their bodies were not there; as per tradition the Amazon dead are burned and they could not take those with them who never made it off the mainland in ancient times. Those who have died on Themyscira have their own tombstones while those who did not have their names listed on a large weather-beaten stone, Raven goes over the list slowly reaching out to touch a certain name; Clio.

"In my memory, she was my cellmate." Is Raven's answer to why the others see a single tear roll down her cheek, Antiope informs her that Clio never made it off the mainland, her life ended by an arrow in her back before the seas parted for the rest of them. Another stone slab with names written on it catches Raven's attention as they make to leave the cemetery, unlike the other one, which is a free standing boulder; this one is carved into the foot of the mountain with two stone sentinels flanking the list of names.

"Those are the ones that have given their lives paying for Hippolyta's folly, each name and the guards are carved by her own hands." Raven gives them an odd look at Antiope's explanation, but is told she will be informed of it by the Queen when the time is right.

Later that day while Raven is being informed of a row of Greek islands that contains a number of various mythological monsters, most of them live beneath the surface of the islands or in the sea surrounding them, they are informed that they are all invited to a formal dinner with the Queen. The rest of the day is spent getting Raven a dress, something she proves to be very much opposed to. Eventually they managed to get her into a midnight blue dress, after being informed even Artemis wears a dress when invited to the palace for this reason. Raven, however, still felt like being trapped in a room with five Starfire's. Who suspected the warrior women could be so, well, girly? The dress is long enough in the back to need lifting when walking so it doesn't drag along the floor, it leaves her left shoulder exposed while being held up by a single golden broach on her right shoulder. As a group the women move around to each other's dwellings to get them all dressed and cleaned up, Diana has to leave them after getting Io and Antiope dressed as she needed to get into her own which is at the palace.

Later that evening the group of five is walking to the palace, after finally getting Philipus to select a light blue dress from the assortment she has. Antiope is wearing a light brown dress, while Penelope is in a pale yellow one; lastly Io is in a snow white one. Raven noted how uncomfortable she looks in it, with her short hair and powerful build she looks like a man from behind. With Ravens long hair she decided only to comb it so it at least didn't stand out in weird ways like it had done since the arena. Penelope and Antiope let theirs out of their ponytails while Philipus had hers curled. At the entrance they are met by a woman in a red dress in the same style as theirs, Ravens eyes widen considerably when it turns out to be Artemis.

"What?" Artemis asks in a tone indicating that in her mind there was nothing to look at.

"Nothing, just didn't think I'd get to see you in a dress." Raven answers in a flat tone.

"From what I hear, sister, you in a dress is a special event as well." The redhead counters with a smirk.

"Touché, sister." Raven smirks back before the group enters the palace. They are met in the throne room where a table has been prepared for eight, Diana and Hippolyta is waiting there, Hippolyta in her regular attire and Diana in black dress with spaghetti straps going over her shoulders, unlike everyone else's hers end at her heels and shows off her curves.

The dinner proves to be an enjoyable affair where Raven noticed that the Queen is a warm person when she wants to be. They are served a much more varied selection of foods than what Raven has experienced so far, with wild boar and deer and fish served along with an assortment of vegetables and bread. They are offered wine or water as drinks, Diana has a single glass of wine for starters before trying to stick to water, Raven and Hippolyta have water while the four others have wine. Hippolyta said it was because she is the monarch and Raven explained she didn't want to ruin it all by blowing random stuff up if intoxicated. Artemis and Io proves to be hardy drinkers while Antiope and Penelope try to keep up, Philipus proves to be the least hardy of them. Diana also seemed to be a usual non drinker when her fortitude fails her and she also begins sticking to wine when goaded to by Io and Artemis, that or the wine is very powerful, since she begins sporting a vacant look in her eyes after finishing her second glass. Being the two only non-drinkers at the table, leaves Raven and Hippolyta plenty of room for talk, when not interrupted by the others.

"Those were quite impressive moves you displayed today, far more than I expected you to learn from your time with Penelope." Hippolyta opens the latest conversation with the purple haired woman next to her. "Where did you learn them?"

"You know I was part of a group of heroes before?"

"Yes, Diana informed me you were."

"Well four years ago we split up, the others leaving me with the city we used to defend as a team. One of them left behind a series of instructions for what I use, I haven't perfected it yet as I had no one to actually teach me. I generally just copy what he left behind while adding my own touch to it."

"The teleportation?"

"Yes, amongst other things, but I can't do that for long while in my own shape as it is tiring to do rapidly."

"The sandstorm and the broken weapons?"

"The weapons were what's known as telekinesis, basically I put a small portion of myself into an object so I can move it with my mind." Raven demonstrates by lifting a knife to her hand. "The bolt I threw at Princess Diana was basically an extension of that. The sandstorm was a mild form of magic I know, I'm not as powerful in that field as some has come to believe." Raven says and casts a glaze at Philipus who she knew was one of them.

"Like the one that Diana says struck you down on the space station?"

"She wanted the others to believe I was controlling their minds by magical means, I might be able to do that, but noting at that scale she accused me of. And Zatanna is far above me in matters magical, sadly."

"So what magic do you know?"

"I have the knowledge and the repertoire of a dragon I once knew, he claimed to be something else at the time and needed to teach me his craft to get what he wanted from me."

"Which was?"

"His freedom, he was trapped inside a book I found by chance."

"Yet you don't use his knowledge?" Hippolyta asks.

"He pretended to love me at a time where I felt alienated amongst my friends, also I found out I have very little control over the most of the magic he taught me so I have resisted to actually use it."

"I see, so do you know your limits?"

"Physically I know I am not a match for Princess Diana or Superman in either form unless I get lucky. With my other abilities I don't know."

"Batman says you lifted a warship with you mind." Diana breaks into the conversation, her mother silently sighs at her intoxicated daughter, but her words does piqué her interest.

"Follow me Raven, I would care to see this feat." They both get up and walk's over to the pool sunk into the floor. "This is my Scrying Pool, from here I can observe Themyscira and the world beyond, as well as looking into the past, sometimes even the future is revealed to me." Raven looks into the still pool with new interest, the others sneak up behind the pair to have a look as well. "Just hold your hand over it, and the pool will do the rest." Raven does as instructed.

The pool ripples as if something was dropped into it before it turns white, before a black spot appears and the pool begins to churn like a whirlpool. The image settles, to Raven's amazement and worry it is not the Gotham docks, it is Jump City as it looked during her father's visit and the scene is the one she saw after Robin had retrieved her from Trigon's realm. The Titans meet and fall, leaving Raven to banish the demon overlord in a flash of white. The scene shifts to Gotham, Ravens meeting with Etrigan and Nightwing and the ensuring fight. Again it shifts, this time to the docks with her and the others emerging out of her shadows, to be met by the Tamaranian ruler and her platoon. As the fight proceeds the others let out as light gasp as Raven is punched away by the royal guard landing at the USS Gotham, Raven doesn't see it but the others eyes grow a bit wider as she disappears into the ship before it is embraced by a shadowy veil before slowly rising out of the water. Raven notes it is a good thing the pool does not convey sound as the massive cannon batteries fire as one. After the ship is put down again the scene shifts again and they are all witness to what Raven thought she saw when Ares met her. Thought her eyes, they see a dark tunnel with an open door at the end showing the evening sun outside. As she makes it out they see the battle of the escaping Amazons, Ravens vision is cast side to side before settling on a group of gathering Amazons with Hippolyta shouting orders. As Raven begins to run towards them, a massive shape all of them recognize too easily lands in front of her, he is a giant of a man, bare-chested with a green skirt covering his lower body he has long curly brown hair and a full beard, the son of Zeus; Heracles. They can see him speaking as he towers over Raven, but is image seems to flicker in and out being replaced with the armored shape of Ares. The image of Heracles is replaced with Ares completely as he touches Raven's shoulder, the image blurs as the fight commences. Hippolyta lowers Ravens hand ending the vision with Ares's red eyed stare.

"Unfortunately the pool is fickle when it comes to show what was." Hippolyta says almost apologetic. "Nonetheless an impressive past."

"Thank you my Queen, yet it is not one would wish upon anyone." Raven replies, oddly thinking of the stone in the graveyard. "My Queen, may I ask of the stone in the cemetery, I was told you carved yourself?" Hippolyta looks at her sternly for a moment.

"You may, I once made a mistake like yours, I fell in love with a god who used me to open the gates of Olympus when he raised the flag of rebellion against his siblings. After the war he was condemned to Tartarus. For my part in the rebellion, I was tasked with guarding his prison. Beneath this palace lies the gate to the underworld, where Hade's resides today. The stone you saw is where I put to memory those who have fallen in guarding the gate from the horrors on the other side, those who have paid with their lives for my mistake. And you may be called to one day fight before it as well. For centuries we kept the gate shut and the key shattered to the four corners of the world, but a few years ago a foolish man made a bargain with Hades that caused the gates to be opened, we have yet to seal the gate to it old state, possibly we may never be able to. For that reason are your bracelets special, like Diana's and others who journey off the island if needed I can send a signal that will summon you." Raven nods respectfully before asking what might easily become the case.

"Not to be disrespectful of our charge, but if we are otherwise occupied?" It was something that might happen; they could end up choosing between catastrophes'.

"I trust you both to know where you are needed most, but rest assured I will only call if our need is dire." Raven bows at her, accepting the answer.

"You are too formal you know, sister." Io says behind her.

"I have been given a rare gift Io; I won't risk losing it by appearing rude to our monarch." Raven answers with a small smile.

"Indeed and I suggest you remember your manners when that wine makes itself felt." Hippolyta instructs the group. The dinner party makes its way back to the table, where Hippolyta and Raven continue to engage in talks about the island, duties and the outside world, on the note of the League, Hippolyta let her know they do not know of the incident with Ares. She also let her know that the League is for the sake of independent opinions going to review all their impression of Raven when they all had their time with her without letting each other know how it went.

"Won't it send a strong signal if I come back as an official Amazon?" Raven asks timidly, while motioning her bracelets.

"It will, but you normally wear long sleeves, correct?"

"I do."

"Just wear them over them, but I insist you wear them or keep them close in case of emergency." Raven nods at the instruction, silently wondering of the reactions she will get when it is eventually revealed.

The meal continues, with the others drifting further and further away from soberness, Diana included. The Queen retires an hour or so before the others leave, with Raven as an escort after promising the Queen she would get them all home. Diana looked sad when Raven convinced the others they have had enough wine and bid her good night.

One by one they are all deposited home, exiting the palace the five are singing tunelessly to an old song of battle. Philipus proves to be the first who is overpowered by the amount of alcohol and loudly deposits it on a sandy area between two buildings, Raven buries the mess with her powers before having to steer the group away from a street leading down to the harbor. After safely depositing Philipus with a bucket, they make their way to Antiope's where they leave her with a bucket as well. Penelope deposits her contents on the way over to her room before passing out, this time it is on a cobbled street, so Raven resorts to quickly moving it and themselves away, with Artemis and Io singing loudly while carrying their friend between them. After depositing Penelope, Raven becomes the unwilling support of Io who seems just a little too happy with her. Thankfully without incident, Io is back in her room and asleep as soon as she lies down, emerging from Io's dwelling, Raven finds Artemis missing.

"She can't have gone far in that dress." She muses before looking at the most likely direction the redhead could have gone. She thinks about sending out her soul-self to look for her before her thoughts are interrupted by quiet sobbing from an alleyway. Raven sighs when she sees Artemis sitting with her back up the wall looking quite miserable in her red dress. "Artemis?"

"Go away." Artemis' green eyes keep boring into the ground.

"Come on you can't sit here. And I can't leave you here." Raven moves a little further into the alley, hoping no patrols are due to pass here.

"Why should you care?"

"Because I promised the Queen that I would." Artemis sighs before letting her head slump down.

"Nobody cares about me." Raven was hoping to avoid something like this, people revealing a completely different side of them while intoxicated.

"Lots of people here do." Raven tries to be optimistic.

"No, they don't. They all whisper behind my back, call me names." Raven closes her eyes for a second feeling guilty; she is a part of this.

"Why do they do that?"

"I am not one of them; they all consider me a heathen since I chose my own path over that of the gods."

"Yet here you are after all these years. Tell me Artemis what kind of people would only let you live amongst them and let you rise to the position you have, and hate you at the same time?"

"I…I…" Tears begin to fall from Artemis' eyes; Raven sits down next to her and gives her a hug.

"Shh…don't worry, look I am sorry if I hurt your feelings, but you are a hard person to like." Artemis coughs amidst the tears.

"I am a horrible person aren't I?"

"No, just hard to like." Raven feels an odd sensation as she rocks Artemis from side to side; noticing too late Artemis has fallen asleep and without leaving Raven with an address.

"Who is in there? Reveal yourself!" A stern voice snaps Raven to the entrance of the ally, spotting two guards with spears, one guard narrow her eyes. "Sister Raven is that you?"

"It is, any of you happen to know, where Artemis lives." Raven leans back to reveal the sleeping Artemis. "She's had too much of our Queen's wine. And if you could keep this to yourselves it would be appreciated by her, even if she doesn't say it."

"She lives in Constantina Street 40A, its in the Bana Quarter." The speaking guard says after casting a look to the other who nods at her. "We didn't see you." She says before resuming her patrol. Raven has a vague idea where that is, she covers both herself and Artemis in a bubble of her powers before taking to the sky where they are practically invisible against the night sky. Silently observing the sleeping city, she spots the street where she thinks Artemis' room is. Touching down near a street sign she proves to be lucky, after a short trip down the street she pushes Artemis' door open, revealing a mess of pieces of armor, leotards and a few weapons and the single bed Raven gently places Artemis on causing the Amazon to stir.

"You...are a real friend…sister." She mutters before drifting off to sleep again, leaving Raven to find a sure-to-be-needed bucket.

It has taken Raven nearly two hours, to get the others home and return home herself, while wearing a long dress; she has taken a rough stab at the hour being later than two in the night when she finally reaches her own door. She receives the second shock of the night, Artemis being the first, as the pale full moon shines its light on her bed, revealing another figure in it.

"I thought you'd never get here." Ravens mind short-circuits as Diana's voice reaches her.

"Uh, Diana what are you doing here?" Raven asks, praying to whatever gods that are watching, that this is not going where she thinks it is.

"Waiting for you of course beautiful." A very naked Diana purrs as she gets off the bed and steps into the moon light, ever since Diana herself had mentioned it, Raven has dreaded a moment like this. For one thing she has no idea how to handle it other than with her stony cold façade she tries to maintain and thankfully no sober person here had approached her. But this is something else, for one it's an intoxicated person asking; meaning stone cold facades won't work as intended unless enforced with hostility and for the other, this Diana of Themyscira, Wonder Woman. Ravens head parts into four options; run and hide somewhere the rest of the night, do what most of the male population in the world would do in an instant and one or both of them would probably regret it in the morning or kindly try and convince her otherwise, failing that forcing her. "Come here." Diana reaches forwards to kiss her; Raven can smell the alcohol on her breath.

"Diana please!" Raven exclaims, holding the woman's arms from herself, thankfully Diana seems to have lost much of her strength or she is not trying very hard. After a bit of struggling Raven manages to pin Diana's arms to her sides, Diana just gives her a silly grin after Raven realizes how close Diana's face is to her own.

"Oh you like it rough, I can go with that." Diana says before leaning forwards, Raven nearly jumps back letting go of Diana's arms.

"Diana wake up!" Raven hold up her hands in front of her in a defensive gesture. "Don't do this."

"Aw, but I want to." Diana almost manages to corner Raven as she back into a wall, but jumps to the side at the knowledge.

"No, no you don't Diana, not like this." Raven acknowledges that a part of her wants to go ahead and do it, but she won't, she learned long ago that suppressing an emotion is not the same as denying it's there.

"It's only now I'm brave enough to ask." Raven curses Diana inwardly for not seeing anything other than what she wants right now.

"You are brave Diana, but we will both regret this in the morning!" Raven dodges another attempted hug by moving to the side, leaving Diana to crash onto the bed. "What would Bruce say if he saw you like this?" Raven knows it's a risk and a low blow against Diana, but she is running out of options. Fortunately it seems to wake something in the woman, since she sits up on her knees and stares into the wall.

"He wouldn't approve…" She sighs; Raven thanks the makers for Batman's ability to make such solid impressions on people.

"No, he wouldn't, go home and think about it till the morning Diana."

"I will…" Diana gets off the bed and heads for the door, Raven stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

"You should get dressed first."

"Oh…You're right." Diana says absentmindedly before moving back and gets her dress on in an almost mechanical fashion before heading out of the door, watching her stumble down the street, Raven sighs knowing she can't risk having her fall asleep on the way. Silently staying in the shadows, Raven spends the next hour shadowing Diana who eventually makes it to the palace; interestingly the guards pretend not to even see her.

Emerging back in her room, Raven notes with a degree of annoyance there are a few emotions in her head that now needs putting in place. Sighing she slips out of her dress before sitting down in front of her window in her meditative stance, exhaling and inhaling deeply she slowly floats off the ground, sitting almost naked in the moon light. She feels all the emotions that have been building up during the day slowly recede back into their proper places; time slowly seems to lose its meaning to her as every thought leaves her conscious mind. Everything is almost right again in her head before…

"The light of Hecate is especially beautiful tonight, don't you think?" A female voice says behind Raven, instantly breaking her calm and focus causing her to land hard on her rear, emitting a slight yelp before scrambling up to cover herself with the dress before facing the intruder. Ravens mind reels in the presence of the floating woman, who by all accounts is naked as well, except for a long pink cloth that seems to float around her form on its own, covering only the two most critical spots. She is blond and is oddly enough for the time, is wearing a pair of slim sunglasses.

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" Raven is at her wits end, not sure if she can handle fighting off another woman, it shows that she backs up into a corner between her bed and the outer wall.

"Why it's I Aphrodite, do you not recognize me?...Oh." Aphrodite takes a peek over her sunglasses. "So you are the new one? I must say the hair and skin looks beautiful together." She smiles at Raven still hiding behind her dress. "No need to be shy, Aphrodite finds beauty in all things. You seem shocked, there is no need to be, here." The floating woman's eyes gives off a golden glow, which seems to calm Raven immeasurably.

"Forgive me, but I don't trust people who sneak up on me, especially in the middle of the night." The woman keeps smiling at Raven who keeps up her dress like shield.

"Ah but it was not you I was actually seeking, she seems to have left. I was hoping to confirm a feeling that she was finally ready." Raven drops back into freaked out mode.

"If it is Diana you are referring to, I had to send her home." Raven felt utterly trapped, but as long as the woman does not act, she will not move.

"It was she, ah so you must have been the lucky one?" Again Raven has the idea about what the woman had hoped to find.

"Sh-She was intoxicated…"

"Oh and you are not? I can fix that." Ravens eyes widen in horror when Aphrodite's eyes start to glow again.

"NO! DON'T!" Raven drops her dress and charges the woman who disappears and reappears a few feet next her previous location, leaving a naked Raven in the middle of the room.

"Oh, it was not what you wanted? Have I not been gracious with my gift upon her?" The woman sounds almost insulted.

"Please no that is not what I meant, Diana is a lovely person. But no one should take advantage of her while she doesn't know if it is what she really wants." Raven tries to explain while covering herself with her arms.

"But wouldn't you want to?" Raven is caught off guard by the question.

"I…I…I…yes, I would, even if it would be the only time…" She stammers feeling compelled to say it.

"Phew, I thought I had gotten it wrong, she's been so long about finding someone." Aphrodite replies in relief.

"I think she has had her sights on someone else, but he is consumed by his own mission." Raven decides it's best not to mention either the man's name or alter ego before the goddess decides to go 'fix' something about him.

"Oh? One like my dear Hephaestus?"

"Y-yes." Aphrodite sighs at Raven's reply.

"I have done too much then, and I fear she will see him grow old before he realizes it. Oh well that's love for you, and I would know." She smiles knowingly. "Well let's talk about you then, who's the person in your life?" The goddess asks with a sly smile.

"I…I…I don't do…"

"Oh of course you do, even if it's dangerous, copying his moves wasn't the only reason you watched all those videos." Raven cringes, it's like being blackmailed for nothing but someone else's enjoyment.

"Please don't do this, I can't, I just can't, not now maybe never." Aphrodite sighs, before smiling again.

"You are more alike to Diana than you think, but don't fret when you decide it to be, it will be you giving the blessing." The flash of lightning and a distant thunderclap announces the departure of Aphrodite, Raven stares the vacant spot for a moment before slipping into her dress again and promptly resigning herself back into meditation.

Diana wakes up next morning still in her dress, with a thundering headache.

"Not now Ares, go have your chariot races somewhere else…" She says out loud to her aching head.

"Ares is not here, thankfully, but someone else was." Hippolyta's voice makes Diana jump, instantly her skull feels a few sizes too small. "Where were you last night?" Diana's headache is not helped by the sudden influx of images, ones of a grey skinned female in a blue dress and a lonely walk down dark streets.

"I am not sure." Diana replies with grinding teeth and closed eyes as the light hurts.

"Then let me tell you, one patrol saw you stumbling around Raven's room before you disappeared into it." Diana groans covering her face with her hands before sitting down on her bed as the rest of the memories return to her. "For heaven's sake child, you went to go sleep with her, didn't you?!" Hippolyta's voice floats between accusatory and concern. Diana leans back on her bed covering her face with a pillow, nodding after moment under it. This is an embarrassment unlike any other for her. Noticing her mother is waiting for an explanation of some sort, she finally pulls off the pillow.

"I did, but she managed to convince me otherwise."

"Thank the gods for small mercies!" Like most mothers Hippolyta is angry and concerned at the same time over her only daughter sneaking off into the night.

"You said someone else was here?" Diana groans trying to change the subject.

"Roughly an hour after you were reported entering the palace a lightning flash and a thunderclap was reported, we have yet to find out who and where it was."

"Have you asked Raven? She seems to attract them." Diana groans again, her head is not kind to her today.

"I thought it would be more fitting that you did that, also so you two can come to terms with last night." Diana sighs, knowing a command from her mother when she hears one. Hippolyta makes to leave her daughters chamber before turning adding; "And one other thing, until you feel better, you are not flying your plane." Diana groans as the door slams shut.

An hour later, a hung-over Diana finds herself knocking on a certain door.

"Raven it's me Diana, can I come in?"

"If you are sober, then yes." Is her flat reply, Diana enters cautiously, seeing Raven floating in front of the window with her back towards her, in the outside world it would be around nine. "I take it your mother sent you?" Diana moves to lean against the outer wall, noticing the rings forming under Ravens closed eyes.

"She did, I have come to apologies for my behavior last night, it was inappropriate." Raven opens her eyes slightly; Diana notes they are a bit bloodshot.

"It was, but at least you aren't waking up regretting worse." Diana nods, she wasn't often drunk and this had probably been one of the worst.

"I feel I owe you more than that." Diana admits.

"Shall we call us even, I stopped you in this and you stopped me from attempting to kill the armored manipulator." Raven floats down to stand on her own legs, still in her dress, Diana finally notes.

"Agreed, sister." Diana says with a smile, holding her clenched fist forwards. Raven gives a wry smile back before doing the same, making their bracelets connect.

"Sister." She enforces.

"So I assume there's something behind you still wearing the dress we fought so hard to get you into. I must have freaked you out." Diana notes.

"Not you, I had relieved myself of it before receiving a very unwelcome visitor." Diana looks up in surprise. "You should check back with Aphrodite, she came looking for you hoping to catch a look at who you decided to 'bless', as she called it." Diana sighs at this, Aphrodite did have a very nasty habit of appearing when least expected or appreciated, and she was well aware that the deity had a particular interest in her.

"So, it's because of her you apparently haven't slept yet?"

"Yes, having the lust goddess appear next to you tends to rattle my control."

"I think it may be a good thing we return to the outside world tomorrow when I am allowed to fly again. The gods seem to gravitate towards you."

"Yeah, back to the world of being the creepy woman and the funny looks it brings…"

"Will make Themyscira shine all the brighter when you return." Diana ensures. "So what happened to the others?"

"I made sure they got home, considering the amount they took in, I'd say they are still there." Raven decides to leave out what Artemis did, and that if whatever she said was true, then it was not Raven's fight to change it.

"Even Artemis?"

"Even Artemis, who lives in a mess by the way." Diana smiles at the remark, never having seen the room herself, Artemis is notoriously private about her sanctuary.

Abandoning the idea of spending the possibly last day on Themyscira asleep, Raven decides to continue the training alone, with the five others in no shape to even get out of bed and Diana's pounding head. Of course without the others and Artemis in particular to pace her, it becomes a little more relaxed than it used to be.

"So Bruce, when are you going to make a move on Diana?" Richard asks out of the blue during dinner in the mansion.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Bruce looks up from his poached salmon, Richard smirks, Bruce not getting away that easy.

"Sure you do, like you can ignore the woman hovering over you." Bruce stares at Richard for a moment, trying to make him drop the subject but failing.

"My relationship with Diana is purely professional." It is a standard Batman reply to the question, one that ignores the Bruce Wayne beneath the cowl.

"But does she know that? Bruce sooner or later you are going to have to figure out your own feelings for her, like I had to figure out Starfire."

"I see the elusive Miss Diana is being discussed?" Alfred interrupts without breaking stride while clearing the empty plates.

"Dick seems to have a grudge against me for grilling him over Raven the other day." Bruce replies with smile.

"Ah so the ideal woman hovers over the dark and brooding man, and the ideal man hovers over the dark and mysterious woman?" Tim snickers at Alfred's comparison, the other two sighs.

"Gee thanks Alfred for putting things into perspective." Dick replies with mock annoyance.

"I do what I can, Master Richard." Alfred smirks.

"Might as well face it you two, you both have a tendency to attract most women without batting an eye. Yet you're either ignoring them, or scared of them." Tim receives the combined stare of both Bruce and Dick telling him to be quiet, Tim just smirks at being right.

The morning of departure finally comes, and Raven feels miserable when looking at the rising sun knowing it. Fortunately the departure is first planned for noon, Raven suspects it's more for Diana's sake as Raven came with very little. Much to her surprise her bag, and the contents in it, had survived the fight in the barrack intact which meant her leotard also had. Around nine, a guard informs her that Hippolyta wishes to see her.

"You wished to see me your Highness?" Raven asks while bowing to the Queen sitting on her throne.

"I did. Walk with me." Hippolyta rises out of her seat and begins walking down a corridor to the left. "In the event I spoke of yesterday, we have a law here on Themyscira; All must have a weapon ready within their dwellings if not on their person. I know you may not want or need one, but that is the law." Hippolyta says while turning down a corridor closed off by a pair of large bronze doors. The two guards outside that lower their gazes at the coming Queen before pushing the doors open, revealing a huge armory inside, only lit by torch fire. "I wish you pick one to have in your dwelling. The only exception is the sword in the glass case." She motions at a long blade prominently displayed in the center of the circular room. The walls are covered in all sorts of ancient weaponry, maces, swords, axes, spears and bows are on display in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. Also there are a number of weapons that fall out of the usual categories, like the staff with blades at both ends, or the blend of an axe and hammer. Also on display is a pair of suits of armor made to give the wearer the appearance of having been swallowed by a metallic eagle. Raven's skin is tingling in the room, the presence of so many magical artifacts are making an impression on her.

"Am I correct in sensing many of these are magical in nature?" Raven asks.

"They are, most of them are enchanted to cleave the flesh that lurks beneath the palace. Others have different enchantments worked into them."

Raven thinks about it for a moment, if she is to go into a battle with a swarm of demons, she would want to be fast, her own strength will be enough, yet she will need something that she is most familiar with. It's like the answer has been looking at her the whole time, a thin curved blade at almost a meters length mounted on top of a standard Amazon height staff, a little short of 2 meters, made of metal. Nightwing would have been able to give her a lecture on the niginata she had chosen, that it originated in feudal Japan, was a samurai weapon, a female samurai that is and that Japanese women still practice with the weapon as a form of sport today. Picking it off the wall she finds it amazingly light.

"One of Io's experiments, as you have seen many of our sisters prefers the sword and shield. If I remember correctly it is not enchanted yet." Hippolyta notes.

"I believe I have made my choice my Queen."

"I will have Io commissioned to enchant it with something appropriate." Hippolyta motions for Raven to follow her out, but now Raven notes there is several suits of plate armor standing behind the two she originally saw.

"Queen Hippolyta, can I ask what those suits are for?"

"Those are for when our fiercest warriors are expecting to face foes many times stronger than they, fortunately we have not had many causes to use them yet. They are all forged from a metal vein we found here, so far it has proved virtually indestructible, but that has still to be properly tested. The one in the back will most likely never see use, the Deceiver paid Io a visit during its construction." Hippolyta motions to an almost black suit that has had the eagle features of the others replaced with those of a winged serpent. "But besides that one, no finer suits of armor exist that were made outside Hephaestus' forge. They are all enchanted to grant greater protection than what the amount of metal would imply them capable of, the one Ares corrupted is suspected to enhance the wearer's battle prowess but at the cost of losing one self in the bloodlust that mimics the gods own. Come, there is one other thing I wish you to see."

Hippolyta leads Raven out of the armory and through the throne room, down a corridor on the right that curves, she pulls a certain torch forwards, revealing it to be a switch that opens the door that was hidden in the wall. Inside the secret corridor is a winding staircase, leading down, framed with brick walls and filled with a scent of age, Raven had in her travels visited a few places that smelled like this, but not in this magnitude. When they emerge at the bottom of the stairs, they see a vast underground cavern, large enough to contain a small city, and by the ruins around the place, it most likely had. The entire area is covered in a thick layer of grey sand, at the far end of the cavern; they can see a small light illuminating what seems to be a gate fit for a castle.

"What you see in the distance is Doom's Door, the Gate into Tartarus. If the alarm sounds you will find us here. Since the key was destroyed a few years ago, we have kept physical watch over it, one day you might find yourself guarding it." Raven nods solemnly before they leave.

After a short lunch with Hippolyta and Diana, Raven finds herself in her room again staring at her leotard. For some reason it fills her with an odd sensation, it represented a different side of her that existed somewhere else, but not on Themyscira. Slipping into it she finds there are some changes that are definitely needed, while wearing the toga she didn't notice them, but the sunburns definitely makes themselves known now especially around her shoulders. Also she finds it oddly more constricting than she remembers.

"Time for a change I guess." She says to no one before placing a pale hand on her shoulder, muttering something under her breath, slowly at first the fabric beneath her hand begins to disappear until it resembles the image in her head. Copying the design on her other shoulder, she flaps her arms around feeling satisfied that her movement doesn't feel quite as restricted anymore. Where her leotard was once a one piece set, it is now much more resembling what Artemis is usually wearing. The sleeves are still there, but now they end just half way up her upper arms. Her shoulders are now bare till the area just before her neck. The bracelets are hidden beneath the sleeves and the cloth cuffs that's a part of them. Raven sighs out of relief that her usual boots can be rolled up high enough to cover most of the variation of her skin color left by the sandal straps. Finally clasping on her cloak, she realizes that the modification to her leotard won't matter so much in a slightly colder climate as her cloak usually covers the area anyways, and as long as her shoulders sting, she can just have it hanging behind them if it begins to bother her. Looking back into the small room, she sighs once before closing the door as she leaves.

"So you want to use the special spear I made?" Io asks, as the training group has assembled at the landing platform, all of them well enough to be there.

"I have more experience with staff weapons and it pretty much is one, with an edge on the top." Raven replies as has her hood down and the cloak behind her shoulders.

"So what do you want done with it?"

"I wasn't given a catalogue, but I trust you to find something appropriate for something that will warrant me to use it."

"I'll get hold of Magala and we will think of something special." Io says with a smile.

"You come back to us sister, I need you to teach me some of those tricks you know." Philipus interrupts.

"I'd be stealing Penelope's job if I did that."

"Heck, I want to know a few of those moves as well." Penelope claims, also smiling broadly.

"Better prove yourself to those people, sister, or we will have words with them." Antiope says sternly while putting a hand on Raven shoulder.

"I will, I've promised a lot of people that I would, including myself. And I will come back." Raven confirms, turning to the last person on the landing pad that's not leaving.

"Strange as it may sound, but I want you to come back as well, sister, I need a good sparring partner." Artemis says with a smirk, letting everyone else know she is kidding, there are other reasons for wanting Raven to return as well.

"And I still need you to train me in a great many weapons." Raven replies. Before getting mobbed by the other four in a group hug. "Sisters, you're getting all mushy on me." The others let go while giggling.

"Go with the Gods Raven." Philipus says before the others echo her.

"You too sisters, you too." With that Raven floats up into the plane to the waiting Diana. As the pair takes to the air they spy a solitary figure standing on the top steps before the palace with an arm raised in silent farewell; Hippolyta.


	22. Speed and Steel

"You were right Diana, I still feel the same about Themyscira as I did when I first saw it, and actually I like it a lot better now."

"Glad you like your home, sister." Diana replies while plotting in the course. "So how bad was it to see me like that?" Diana is keeping the tone light, knowing they are both past the episode.

"On a scale from 1 to 10? 12 since it was you."

"You expected it from someone else?"

"Let's just say I would have expected it from any of the others before you."

"Nice to know one can still surprise." Diana replies with a smile.

"That wasn't the only thing that surprised me, if you remember what you said." Diana makes a fake cough before answering.

"Let's just say I don't have the same trauma as the rest of our sisters." Raven wonders what other secret passions Diana has hidden beneath her ideal surface. "So what if I had been sober and tried the same?"

"I told Aphrodite that, yes I would." Now it is Raven's turn to feel embarrassed. "I had to explain to her how dangerous that could prove though."

"As she says, she sees beauty in everything."

"I wonder if she sees beyond the act."

"She does, but she always finds it pretty even if the practitioners don't. You fear it might turn ugly for you?"

"I fear that I might wake up in a room covered in the remains of the 'lucky' one, I was always told any excessive display of emotion would be to give into to my father. That, and if I suddenly turn red will be a bit of a shock."

"Point taken. So the glaive?" Diana shifts the conversation.

"I have more experience with a staff, if I am to use a weapon, I prefer something I am familiar with. Also, it is light and fast, and can be used as a shield if needed."

"True, I prefer the sword and shield myself. I can block an attack while I am making my own attack as well." The rest of the trip to the space station is spent in talking about weapons and how to use them.

"Hello ladies!" The Flash greets happily, the now covered mystic and the Amazon Princess walking down the hallway.

"Hello Flash, how's it been up here?" Diana asks.

"Quiet besides Killer Frost and a new Stingray decided to try and freeze a water reservoir, they gave up when Big Blue showed up."

"Well that's fortunate. Anyways Raven I leave you to him." Diana says before patting her on the shoulder before moving on, they had agreed to keep everyone in the dark about Raven's new relation to Themyscira, leaving the blue cloaked mystic and the Scarlet Speedster alone.

"Soo?" Flash asks after a moment of awkward silence between the two.

"So? I'm the one who has something to prove remember?" Raven replies in her usual monotone.

"Right." The Flash replies without moving.

"You don't have any idea what to do right?" Raven sighs, the man is getting closer and closer in her mind to a Beastboy clone, the Flash sighs.

"You're right, I guess I just don't know how to do this. It not like I whip up another batch of training for you, not that I think you need anything physical after two weeks at Diana's."

"So do you have a city or something you defend when not up here?" Raven asks.

"Well yeah, but there's never been anything in it I couldn't handle." Flash is thinking of his 'rogue' gallery.

"So assuming you voted against me, what would I have to do to prove I am not manipulating you or others? Like meeting someone you know isn't being manipulated or capable of being manipulated." Flash suddenly have something akin to an epiphany as his face lights up.

"Come on, I just got an idea." He says with smile before blurring out of sight, leaving Raven alone for a few seconds before he appears again. "Well come on, can't have forgotten where the teleporters are?"

"Welcome back Diana." John waves at her as she enters the meeting room, finding it otherwise empty of people, besides the Green Lantern, sitting with his feet on the table while a green yo-yo spins up and down next to him. "So how did it go?"

"Let's just say I haven't changed my opinion. We are still having the evaluation meeting at the end of this?"

"Sure we are, just curious how she was after spending nearly two weeks with you." Diana just smiles mysteriously, wondering how many jaws would drop when she told them her part.

"I guess Wally never managed to figure out a plan?"

"Guy's been pacing holes in the ground trying to figure it out." John smirks before motions to a spot on the ground where the floor has a visible circle walked into it.

"You remember Kid Flash right?" Wally says as he walks through a set of sliding doors in a sturdy building in Chicago.

"He helped us put the Brotherhood of Evil on ice, and helped Jinx reform. Yes I remember him, even if we lost touch after we broke up in Jump City. Isn't he your kid or something?"

"That's kind of complicated, but professionally we are, sorta. Ok the person I want you to meet is behind this door, I'll be right behind you." Raven rolls her eyes at the smiling speedster, before entering the room.

Inside is a large computer console mounted in the wall, oddly enough there's one regular chair in the room and an inhabited rocking chair. Raven stares at the person sleeping in it; it's been four and a half year since she's heard or seen her and she has still manages to look exactly like she remembers her, right down to the horn-shaped pink hair. Raven can't believe it's actually Jinx, Flash has brought her to see, she looks over her shoulder seeing the speedster standing in the door leaning against the frame. Looking back Raven has an idea; looking back over her shoulder she blows her finger, a signal to keep the man quiet. Silently Raven walks over to the sleeping woman, with a black cat sleeping in her lap no less, noting her rocking is in tune with her breathing; inhaling is rocking back, exhaling is rocking forth. Standing next to the chair Raven waits for the long exhale to be turned into an inhale; at the peak of the inhale Raven moves her left foot to arrest the movement of the chair by supporting the right leg of the chair with her foot. The moment is pure gold for a comedian like Flash, as Jinx begins to exhale the halted chair causes her to cough and awaken only to yelp and reflectively toss the cat into the air and rock even further backwards causing her to fall over backwards. Raven catches the cat before it reaches its apex and puts it down next to its owner. Jinx quickly seizes it in a hug, something the cat doesn't look very pleased about.

"Don't worry Raven…" Raven looks at Jinx strangely, hiding her mirth, Jinx's eyes fall upon the figure that tripped her. "Who…?" Jinx's cat eyes expand like a cats does when it's either agitated or in the dark. "RAVEN!" Jinx jumps off the floor and seizes Raven as well in a hug, before she remembers something and lets go. "Umm, sorry."

"How's it going Jinx?" Raven asks while pulling her hood down, revealing a smirk.

"How's it going?! We lose touch with you after you guys break up then the next think we hear is you having gone missing after fighting a dragon, and you ask how's it going here?! Oh I should kill you!" Raven notes Jinx is close to hyperventilating and her cat is close to suffocating.

"Jinx, breathe and let your cat do that as well." Flash is snickering in the background. Jinx takes a deep breath and lets up the pressure on the cat.

"Sorry, it's just been so long, I thought you were really gone." She finally manages to speak in calm tone.

"I had to go; the last fight had some unpleasant aftereffects I had to deal with before I could come back."

"Oh there's a story I wanna hear. I assume the others know?"

"They do, besides Starfire who is still in space. Strange, I always thought you'd end up with a cat." Raven says while pointing at the feline, that still looks grumpy.

"Duh! I've always been a cat person." Jinx says while pointing at her eyes. "But while running with the H.I.V.E. I couldn't have one, either because pets weren't allowed or because you guys kept throwing me in jail." She puts on a fake grumpy expression before continuing. "Anyways Raven, I'd like you to meet Raven, and Raven id like you to meet Raven." Raven quirks an eyebrow.

"You named your cat after me?" She asks while extending a finger to the cat, that swipes at it with a paw. "Ow."

"Of course, I saw she had all of your personality traits. She's stubborn, when it comes to when she wants food. Grumpy when one disturbs her and very annoying when one is trying to sleep or work. Aren't you, mommy's wittu puddycat?" Flash is fighting a losing battle to keep his mirth at bay, Raven sighs even if she does think it's funny.

"Well glad I could inspire something in you."

"Oh the cat is merely an honor; you inspired me a lot more than I let you know. Let's face it we both have grey skin, weird powers most people consider magic and strangely colored hair and eyes. Yet you always were on the right side of the fence, even if your past, from what I hear, was a helluva lot worse than mine. You gave me something to aspire to." Raven is flattered, she doesn't remember having a particularly easy relationship with Jinx and virtually none after she came clean.

"Glad I could help."

"So what brings you and the stoplight here?" Jinx says, finally acknowledging the presence of the elder hero.

"Well I had a run in with him and his friends from space, some think I'm bad and have brainwashed a bunch of people, some think I'm good, so he's here as my 'parole officer' to evaluate my behavior."

"Uhu. And you guys don't know she can't actually do that?" Jinx asks the Flash.

"Nope we don't, all we know she's got some pretty serious abilities. I took her here since I figured a fellow 'witch' and former rival could help me make up my mind."

"You wanna be the fastest an in the world with a limp?" The both ask in unison while boring holes in the man, before realizing what they did.

"Ok that's scary. Say, where is the Kid anyways?" Flash looks around himself.

"Oh yeah, he's probably halfway across the state by now." Jinx walks over to the computer, putting down the cat and picking up a microphone. "Hey Kid get home now!" She almost yells, at the word 'now', Kid Flash appears in the doorway.

"Whoa! Raven is that you? Man you've grown!" Jinx seems to realize the difference in height now that her boyfriend mentions it.

"It is, and thank you, I think."

"Yeah, you really have grown, in more than one way." Jinx emphasizes by poking Ravens arm.

"I felt I had to compensate for the others absence, and I just came back from two weeks of Amazon boot camp." It dawns on Raven why her leotard seemed smaller when she put it on this morning.

"Whoa you've been to Paradise Island?! Ow!" Jinx slaps Kid in the back of the head, knowing he was thinking things she doesn't approve of.

"Yes, I have. Wonder Woman was the first person I had to convince I was not a bad guy. Some of the League thinks I brainwashed Batman, Nightwing, the new Robin along with Beastboy and Cyborg."

"Flash you do know she was one of the founding Titans right and that she can't do mind control?" Kid Flash says, unknowingly repeating what Jinx said.

"I know the first part, and I am beginning to accept the second part. But I seem to remember you saying you had a fierce rivalry with Raven?" Flash replies while motioning at Jinx.

"Oh we did, while we were on each side of the fence. Somehow when my old crew and hers ended up against each other we always ended up facing each other, so we get to swap spells and I mostly got to throw insults and she threw cold remarks. But we are cool now right." Jinx says while extending her hand.

"Sure." Raven replies with a smirk and gives the hand a squeeze.

"Ow! Damnit you got a grip!" Jinx yells rubbing her hand.

"So you guys want a cup of coffee or something or are you off again?" Kid Flash asks, hoping the mystic would care to tell him as well where she's been.

"I would in any case." Raven says while eying the Flash.

"Neat." Kid Flash says happily before blurring out of sight.

"Noo! Don't touch the kettle!" Jinx runs after him down the corridors waving her arms in the air, a dull boom is heard farther down.

"Sorry." Kid Flash's voice makes Jinx stop running and slumps over grumbling to herself, about her being the one with bad luck powers and that's the fifth kettle this month, as Bart usually didn't have the patience to let the water boil on its own.

"Amazing those two are still together after four years." Raven thinks out loud.

"Well kids and love these days, plus he's got some tips from the old master." Flash says proudly while polishing his finger tips on his uniform, Raven just rolls her eyes at him.

Richard is doing his daily exercise on the pommel horse in the Wayne Manor gym, spinning his legs around in circles, as he notices Alfred enter the room. Alfred usually only disturbs them in case of a major crisis or long awaited news.

"Master Richard, Mater Bruce wishes to inform you that Miss Raven has returned from Themyscira and that she is currently undergoing her trial with the Flash." Richard couldn't be more embarrassed as he slips between 'Themyscira' and 'and', causing him to land sideways at Alfred's feet, he man just quirks an eyebrow at him.

"Thank you Alfred." Richard manages as he rolls onto his back.

"My pleasure Sir." Alfred as he leaves, leaving Richard to wonder if all the teasing from pretty much everyone he considers himself 'close' to have a valid point when the mere mention of Raven coming back is able to toss him out of his rhythm.

"I see Alfred delivered his message." Richard turns his head to see Bruce, in a white t-shirt and grey training pants, leaning against the doorframe with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"You planned this." Richard states.

"When have I ever done anything without a reason? I do believe you have fallen head over heels for her without you knowing it." Bruce continues, Dick is seriously considering bringing up Zatanna gain to get him back in his usual manners, he decides otherwise.

"One day I'm gonna tie you up and leave you to Diana." Richard knows most of the male population wouldn't consider that a threat, at all. Bruce is no exception, but for another reason.

"I'll look forwards to it. Come spar with me." Bruce moves onto the mat in the center of the room, Richard follows after getting up. The pair begins to circle each other.

"So what's with all the prying into my love life Bruce?" Dick asks while parrying a kick.

"Only the same as every concerned father figure." Bruce is well aware that he could not replace Richard's real parents, but that he is still a father figure to him.

"Would you disapprove if we grew old together?" He attempts a punch, which is blocked.

"Not at all, I would be happy if you found someone who would make you happy. But she is special."

"All will agree on that, but what are we then?" Dick counters in two ways.

"Point taken."

"So what is the League actually planning on doing if she fails their tests?" It has been a niggling thought in his head ever since hearing about the offer.

"Obviously she won't become a League member, but other than that they have contacted Fate to have a look into something, in case the worst happens." Bruce dodges a kick.

"So they are just going to imprison her because she can't prove something someone else claimed?!" Richards's frustrations earn him a blow to the shoulder.

"Look even after what Zee did, some of them still count her years of service higher than the newbie with seemingly good intentions but a dubious past."

"She a founder of the Titans for God's sake Bruce, does our actions really count for so little in the eyes of the League?"

"They don't, but some are more suspicious against people with powers that could turn dangerous just because the user feels too much, magic and in particular demons." Richards shakes his head.

"Did Jason have to put up with something like this?"

"We had Morgan Le Fay turn London into a medieval castle, he was accepted after that."

"Can I order a potentially dangerous crisis then?" Bruce smiles knowingly at Richards comment.

"Yo BB! Hand me that screwdriver." Cyborg calls from under the ship that is slowly taking shape.

"Dude you have like 30 different lying over here." Beastboy stares at the display cases.

"Bristol 22, it's got a circular head with trapezes on the outside." Beastboy stares blankly at the many screwdrivers before finding one matching the description.

"Ah man, this is a polydrive!" Cyborg complains, it's not easy building a ship with someone else around that doesn't even keep track of basic geometric shapes.

"Dude why don't you just use the same screws like everyone else?" Cyborg begins explaining the whys and what's about screws; Beastboy complains that it's all techno lingo to him. The arguing boys are too wrapped up in their argument they don't notice someone entering the shop, who strolls over to the many cases with the drivers. Picking out a single one before tossing it over to land near Cyborg, between her and the boys are the ship. Cyborg fumbles with his hand for the object before holding it up to his face.

"Nice, Bristol 22, so you brought it over anyways." Beastboy looks over the ship to see if any other drivers were about to come over, spotting someone else.

"RAE!" He shouts in joy, Cyborg sits up, slamming his head into the ship again.

"OW! Damnit B!" He groans before rolling out from under the ship. Beastboy in the meantime has attached himself to Raven in a hug.

"You're hugging me." She says calmly, causing Beastboy to let go immediately and take a step back.

"He he, sorry." He says while scratching the back of his head, with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Glad to see you're back, so how was the sunny island?" Cyborg says while walking over and rubbing his sore head.

"Warm, sandy and well sunny."

"Betcha must have cooked under that." Beastboy quips while grabbing the edge of Ravens cloak.

"They had me change." Raven replies while pulling her cloak to her.

"Ok who are you? And what did you do with Raven? She wouldn't let anyone near her cloak!" Beastboy starts looking for anything suspicious.

"Well I had orders to do so."

"Oh so you have a tan now?" Raven, who has so far been completely covered by her cloak, pulls back the left side showing them her shoulder at Beastboy's mention.

"Is that a tan for you?" Beastboy says while pointing at the darkened part.

"Actually it's a sunburn."

"Remind me I don't want to fight you." Cyborg notes, while looking at her arm that seems a bit larger than he remembered.

"Yeah, what did they feed you over there?"

"Gar you seem to forget I was over there for physical training, which did include a morning lap around their island before we went to train archery, unarmed and armed combat."

"We?"

"They found some other Amazons that needed shaping up." Instantly the two boys have images of Raven being mauled by butched women.

"I bet you're tired then?" Cyborg asks.

"Not really, I was wondering if they have a gym around here, but I don't know when Superman will come by to pick me up." At this the pair falls over backwards. "What?"

"Raven…physical…training…sun." Beastboy mutters, Raven sighs.

" Jinx sends her best by the way Victor." Cyborg sits up again at the mention.

"You met Jinx?"

"Flash took me to see her and Kid Flash in Chicago, turns out she named her cat after me."

"So Wonder Woman needed almost two weeks of convincing and Flash needed what 2 hours?"

"Actually I had Wonder Woman's support before we left, it was her mother I had to appease. Besides Flash is an easygoing guy and he said that seeing me with Jinx was enough for him."

"Sounds like the Flash I know." A deep steady voice draws everyone attention to one of the hallways to see Superman emerge. "So are you ready Raven?" He says while extending his hand for a shake that Raven shakes shortly.

"Sure, I just gotta ask Cyborg if he can spare a room just in case."

"She can have the broom closet." Beastboy jokes, earning him a glare from the other two Titans.

"I would offer you Beastboy's bunk, but since its been inhabited by Beastboy I won't bother. Got lots of ceiling space though." The last part makes the man of steel quirk an eyebrow.

"At least it's in doors, so where do you live?"

"53B McArthur's Street, just don't let anyone see you come and go." Cyborg says with a smile.

"I won't, so where are we off to?" She asks Superman.

"Well I figured we'd go on a patrol of Metropolis and take it from there."

"Ok, well I'll see you two later." Raven waves at the two before following Superman out.

"So I guess you don't patrol very often during the day time?" Raven asks in mid flight over Metropolis, noticing all of the pointing fingers of the people below them.

"Actually I hardly patrol at all; I usually leave the regular stuff like muggers and burglars for the police, unless I happen to come across them."

"So you rely mostly on your hearing?" She asks, guessing it was how he became aware of such things.

"Well most of my cases are normally quite loud." He admits.

"Like the giant robots and evil aliens Batman mentioned you usually handle?"

"Yup, so is that hood magic?" Superman asks.

"It is, how could you tell?"

"I can't see anything under it so either its magic or lead." Superman says with a smile, he is actually having trouble seeing through her at all, but he has dismissed it as she is part demon. Raven smiles back.

"So I hear you have a day job?" She asks.

"I do, makes me feel I am part of humanity instead of above it, like I am now."

"So are you a police officer?" She guesses, he certainly had the build for it.

"I'm not saying." He says with a smile, Raven thinks of a few other professions he could be doing.

"Teacher?" Another smile. "Store clerk?" At this he laughs.

"Let's just say you'd probably find it amusing." He says while keeping the mystery. "So what about you?"

"I've never had a job, other than this." She motions at her uniform.

"Oh…so you never stop being the superhero?"

"No, none of us really stepped out in civilian when we lived in Jump, to us our uniforms were our civilian. After the others left I just carried on like that. When we weren't on mission there was training, tower maintenance or just waiting for the next emergency."

"Sorry for the comparison, but it sounds a bit like J'onn when we expanded the League, he pretty much stayed put on the station for two years. He became more and more distant from the rest of us; eventually Diana had to force him to come down to Earth."

"Well we were all like that so it didn't seem out of place for us. Actually the only one it would seem weird to would have been Robin, since he is the only one with a secret identity he bothered hiding."

"So you don't find it hard to unwind when dressed up?"

"No, for me this is normal, this was the dress code on Azerath as well. Neither did any of the others, except Robin, but I take it you know why. Starfire however was a big fan of shopping for clothes, but she would stand out anywhere regardless."

"I do. So did he never come out of the Batman-like personality?"

"Only when it was sorely needed, which was usually when one of us were breaking. But he did try to unwind from time to time."

"He helped you?"

"The one time I allowed him to. But I had been de-aged to a powerless 8 year old, still he insisted on bringing me back from the hell I had been sent to."

"So who helped him?"

"He was very stubborn, like his mentor; if we tried to he would retreat further away. But we eventually managed to force our help on him, even when he protested when we did it."

"I'm sure he's actually grateful for your help, even if he never say's it."

"Well he did say it." Raven replies.

The rest of the day is spent with idle chatter and a press meeting with Superman, who had to calm the citizens of Metropolis who thought something was wrong since he had been out patrolling the city. Watching from the shadows, remaining unseen, Raven notes that a particular reporter is sending Superman almost knowing looks. She is wearing white high heeled shoes, a white skirt along with a long sleeved light purple shirt. Raven doesn't know it, but she is looking at Lois Lane, Clark Kent's wife. Superman had asked Raven to join him, but she had waved him off with that she had a bad experience with reporters and so far she preferred remaining hidden. Superman had acted almost surprised at that, which made Raven consider that he might be a reporter himself; it certainly would make some of his sudden appearances less mysterious.

Later that night Raven enters the abode of Victor Stone, unseen, finding most of the flat, dark but noisy. Floating silently around in the unfamiliar home she comes across Victors trophy wall; all of his old sports trophies are prominently displayed but that is not what catches Raven attention. Before all of the trophies on the wall is a small table with a few cups and a small framed picture, a picture of the Titans. Holding it up, Raven notes its one of their innumerable group shots. Robin is standing in the middle, the leader as he was, with a confident smirk on his face. Starfire is standing on his left with a huge smile and her arms in the air, Raven remembers Beastboy convincing her that she had to do that. Cyborg himself is taking up most of the back space with closed eyes and a huge grin on his face as well, mostly because he is giving Robin a pair of rabbit ears. Beastboy is hanging around Cyborg's neck trying to avoid getting swatted by Starfire's waving arms. Raven herself is standing to Robin's right turned slightly away from the camera, causing her cloak to cover every detail of her. It's not unlike the other photos Raven remembers posing for, but it strikes her a little that she seems so closed and sad in this shot. She's trying to remember a group shot were she looked better when the light in the room is suddenly turned on.

"It's the best shot I have of us together." Cyborg says, smiling slightly as he has been looking at her for a moment while she was lost in thought.

"Did you have to use one where I looked this bad?" She asks while turning towards him.

"Sure I got a bunch were you look worse." He says with a broadening smile. "Beastboy always tried to get you in the mood for those shoots. Which always backfired, if I remember correctly." He walks over to have look at the photo himself. "Robin wasn't all that pleased with that shot."

"Mr. Uber-serious never did like to have those shots spoiled by the jokes."

"True, but that's what made it fun. So how was your day with Supes?"

"Long, boring, spent on idle chatter, only broken up by a press meeting he had to hold to calm everyone down."

"Yeah, he only shows up really when there's trouble. So you wanna hit the sack or can I aim for the impossible by having you join me and B for a movie?"

"It's not one of those B-horror movies again is it?" She asks.

"Na, Gladiator." He says with a grin, Raven rolls her eyes at him.

"The irony, you know I could probably sit all night and shake my head at the practiced routine on the screen."

"Like me and B can't enjoy a bunch of digital aliens or a group of poorly dressed up zombies."

"Touché, I will join you then."

"Sweet! B move your butt, Rae is joining us!" He shouts through the door he had come from. "Grab a seat we don't have the luxury of a large TV or couch here."

During the movie's swordfights Raven found herself unconsciously mimicking what she learned on Themyscira, she noticed herself too late for the others not to notice as well, after which she had to promise that she would show them what she could do. After Gladiator finished, the three were entertained, Beastboy suggested they continue with 300. Fortunately Cyborg said he had to rest so he could continue building tomorrow. As Cyborg sleeps on a gurney and Beastboy having seized the two person couch, and shed on it, Raven was left with finding a suitable ceiling to attach herself to. As it turns out, only Cyborg's room had a reinforced ceiling that could carry her, neither of them minded it though, even if it led to some teasing from Beastboy.


	23. Journalism

Next morning, Cyborg's P.O.V.

_Startup initiated …_

_Running system diagnostic…_

_Power cell at 100% capacity…_

_System diagnostic complete…_

_All systems operational…_

_Good Morning Victor._

I have awoken every time with those red letters flashing in my head before I actually open my human eye ever since my accident , this morning is no different. Opening my human eye and turning on my artificial one, I yawn and stretch, even when I know I don't need to.

"Ah yeah, another perfect morning, another great day to be alive!" I say out loud in my usual manner, it helps me to realize that I am alive is a good thing, better than panicking every morning, like I did the first weeks after my surgery.

Sitting up and looking around my bedroom I am momentarily caught off guard by the large cocoon like shape of my lil sis, who is still sleeping soundly as she hangs off my ceiling. Curiously I note her small boots standing a little to her left under her; she told me Batman had gotten them for her after the events in Gotham. Looking at her makes me think how much she has changed, yet remained the same. She never called any of us after we split up, I hope it was only because she thought that we would think she needed help or something, and we never called her either because we were busy or that we feared we would be bothering her in something, it's a thing I regret now. The girl I knew was so introvert and scared of herself that I some days worried she would do something stupid, something the rest of us would end up mourning. I guess it began to change after she kicked her father's butt into the next reality, we didn't see it as we walked up and down her every day. But slowly she became more and more open, leading us to today. Where she is actively trying to convince the League she is not a bad person, I just hope they won't force her to do anything that will degrade her, or they will have to answer to me.

"You're staring Victor." Her quiet voice announces she is awake.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about how much you've changed since Jump. So why didn't you ever call any of us?"

"Either I was busy, or thought you'd come running if I did. So why didn't you ever call me?"

"Figured you wouldn't be too talkative if we interrupted anything."

"Seems we all were afraid of something." She smiles, which I find kinda odd, since she is upside down. "So have I changed into someone else?"

"No, you're still my lil sis, I just don't have to worry about you anymore that's all." I reply with a smile, displaying my confidence in her as I used to do when she needed reassuring.

"You can worry about me Victor; it's nice to know someone does." I salute her like a soldier.

"Well let's go make breakfast, maybe you wanna cook?" In all defiance of gravity she slowly glides off the ceiling to stand on the ground.

"You will be my first human subject then." She gives me a sly grin, which I return.

"Ha! Cast-iron stomach, remember?" I say knocking once on where my stomach is; actually we both know my stomach is still human as it proved that night when Rae turned the Tower into a haunted house and when Starfire made that pie filled with worms.

"I remember the half a bottle of syrup you emptied on my first attempt at pancakes." I remember the half burnt things that might have been pancakes, that day were not remembered for those in any case.

"Well you claimed to have improved your cooking." I smile at her before exiting the room to do my newly discovered favorite morning ritual, waking Beastboy by tilting the couch. While I prepare to lift I see Raven have a look into my fridge, one of my favorite pieces of furniture.

"Cyborg half your fridge is packed with tofu?"

"That's B's and he's going to take it with him. Now watch." I instruct before bending down to lift the couch gently, Beastboy must really be gone I note as he just rolls down onto the floor in a tangle of sheets and pillows. Snoring he rolls around to lie on his back with his tongue out of his mouth.

"Cute, I got a better idea." I see Raven use her powers to pick up one of those bio-bombs Garfield usually call socks and curl it into a ball, personally I would never touch the things, they might be corrosive for all I know. I remain silent as the ball of smelly death hovers over the floor to just over Gar's mouth before being forced into it.

"MMMPPRRFF!" Gar wakes up in utter shock and surprise before spitting out the sock and races into the bathroom. Rae and I hear running water and retching. I crack in laughter, Rae gives a satisfied smirk. I'm still laughing when Gar comes back out, looking like a sick puppy.

"Dude, it's so not time for Stankball." He seems to need a second round as he disappears into the bathroom again.

"I'll admit Rae your cooking has improved." I say and meaning it, seems the My First Cookbook; I 'accidentally' left behind has helped. "Now ain't you sorry you didn't get to try Rae's bacon and eggs?" I smile at Garfield next to me, he just stares sullenly at his tofu, I'll admit to myself that Rae might have went a bit overboard but It was just too much fun to watch.

"Thanks Vic. I better clean this up; Superman said he will take to the skies in about 20 minutes."

"You're a mean woman Rae you know that?" Beastboy finally contributes to the morning conversation.

"Does that really surprise you?" She replies with a smirk.

"No, but why so evil!" He exclaims.

"You shouldn't make it so easy then, should have seen Jinx when I found her." She replies.

"Did you send her to the bathroom as well?" He asks.

"No, but she did toss her cat into the air."

"We gotta have a Titan get together one day." I add as Raven moves into the kitchen.

"What ever happened to you and Bumblebee?" She asks.

"Well we tried to make it work, but she was still leader of Titan's East and I tried getting everything to work here. Eventually we ended up butting heads more and more so we ended it peacefully."

"Sorry to hear that, thought you two were dead set together."

"Well, people change, except Gar." I add with a smile to the changeling, whose jaws drop. I love being around friends.

3rd person.

"Who are they?" Raven asks the Man of Steel getting out of a hole in the ground. They had been patrolling most of the day, before in the late afternoon an explosion summoned them to the Second National Bank's department in Metropolis. Much to Ravens surprise Superman had reacted by instinct and was gone as soon as the sound of the explosion was heard, leaving Raven to fly in normally navigating by the smoke cloud. She didn't see it, but he had raced inside the hole in the front of the building and being violently ejected the same way a second later. Superman looks a little green as he climbs out. "You ok?" Raven asks again.

"Think, its Metallo. Or someone who has…kryptonite, and a mean left hook." Superman explains as he rubs his smarting cheek. Neither of them notices the figure emerging from the bank, firing a green energy beam at Superman who gets slammed back into the ground making another hole.

"All I wanted was to make a withdrawal and you had to come barging in." The android form of Metallo walks closer to finish Superman who is again trying to get out of the ground. Raven places herself between the metal monstrosity and the stricken man.

"You're not killing him." Raven says forcefully.

"Get out of the way toots, I've got more than enough juice for you and him. Here let me show you." Metallo opens his chest cavity revealing the piece of kryptonite that keeps him running, Superman groans slightly behind Raven at the exposure. The piece of meteor glows slightly before it focuses into a beam of green light, Raven forms a black shield in front of her grimacing at the impact. "What? You're Superman's new girl or something?"

"If you don't surrender, I will have to make you stop moving." Raven smirks at him, with a plan in her mind.

"Ha! The Boy-scout can hardly handle me, what makes you think you have a chance?" Metallo boasts as he fires again, this time Raven directs the blast into the sky instead of letting it dissipate against her shield.

"For one thing I'm not allergic to kryptonite, second I'm a telekinetic." She says while smirking at him.

"A what?" Raven guesses Corben would have had a questioning look on his face, if he had facial muscles. Right now she guesses he has been hiding for a while as he is dressed in a blown pair of pants with a ripped cream colored shirt covering parts of his metal upper body, the only thing that suggests he's human is the diagonal half face he is wearing.

"I can move things with my head."

"Like what…HEY!" But it's too late for him, Raven has already pulled out the piece of rock powering him, rendering his metal body motionless as it conserves energy to keep the remaining human parts alive. Raven covers the piece in a radiation proof black bubble that hovers in mid air as she goes to check up on Superman.

"You all right?" She asks as he stands up.

"I will be, it will just take a moment. Nice work, but we need to move him to S.T.A.R. Labs before he expires." He says, eyeing the motionless Metallo.

"Wait, there's one more in the bank." They both turn to the back seeing what looks like a metallic spider stepping out of the building.

"Hey metal head; I got what I wanted…oh CRUD!" Raven doesn't know if she should laugh or sigh at the sight of Gizmo running as fast as his metal legs can carry him off to the side, still wearing his green jump suit and goggles.

"Anyone you know?" Superman asks, or sure if he should if he should be amused or worried.

"Gizmo of the Jump City H.I.V.E. Five, he's mostly harmless but annoying, tech and profane genius. We better go get him." They both fly at a cruising speed, leaving Metallo to stare angrily at the piece of rock that normally powers him. Before they can round the corner of the street he headed down they hear Gizmo yelling again before colliding with something.

"CRUD!"

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT! I GO OUT FOR ONE MEASLY PIZZA AND I RUN INTO YOUR RUNT ASS!" A deep and clearly angry voice yells, one which Raven recognizes instantly. The pair of heroes turn the corner and look down the road, spotting Gizmo being shaking viciously by a large black man outside a pizza restaurant half way down the road. Raven smiles, it was not Gizmo's day.

"You can let him down now." Raven says to Cyborg, who is wearing one of his holo-rings and a pizza smeared over his shirt.

"WHA..!? Rae?" Cyborg looks up in surprise, his anger immediately stilled, as he spots the miffed Superman and the amused Raven. He smiles before turning back to the panting and dizzy Gizmo in his hands. "You're lucky they are here, or I'd have your ass." He says before dropping the miniature bad guy on his rump.

"Well thanks you're your assistance." Superman says while extending his hand to Cyborg.

"No problem man." Cyborg smiles while letting his bionic eye flare red as he shake, surprising Superman a bit before he smiles back knowingly.

"We will need you to follow us to the station about this."

"Sure, whatever puts that guy behind bars, again." Raven forms a black platform for Cyborg to stand on with Gizmo sitting next to him grumbling, flying back they collect Corben and the piece of kryptonite. Midflight Cyborg begins whistling tunelessly before pulling off his ring, making Gizmo stare.

"…munching flipping crud sniffing Titans…." Metallo stares at Cyborg as well.

"So what made you all metal bolts?" Metallo asks.

"Accident, you?"

"Luthor." Metallo replies with venom reeking in his voice. "So how'd you deal with it?"

"Got angry, nearly cut off ties with the man who saved me, oh and met her." Cyborg replies while thumbing at Raven.

"She pull your plug as well?"

"No, but I did stop him from charging headfirst into an angry alien that could pull him apart." Raven replies.

"I don't know about you two, but my ears are ringing after that." Superman jokes as they exit the station after having dropped off Gizmo, who had copied a file from the banks computers that could let him hack into the system and empty the bank of virtual assets.

"I hear ya man, if he wasn't a criminal he could be testing profane filters for a living." Cyborg says while turning his finger in his ear. "Anyways it was fun, but I better get back before Beastboy blows up the hall, later." Cyborg waves at them as he pulls out his ring and turns into Victor Stone and walks away.

"So, back on patrol?" Raven asks after seeing Victor disappears down the street.

"No, I think we have earned a break. Follow me." Superman smiles as he takes off, Raven follows. The pair are silent till they reach their destination, the globe on top of the Daily Planet.

"Nice view." Raven says while touching down.

"It is, sometimes I just like coming up here and look at the city." He replies while sitting down, swinging his legs over the side. "I've been thinking about something you said yesterday."

"Oh?" Raven sits down next to him.

"Well you said you have bad experience with the press?"

"In short, I don't talk to everyone and the Jump City press kept trying to get me to. When they couldn't, they began making up their own stories, at some point they found out I was half demon and that just fueled their fire. That brought out the religious fanatics and it went downhill for me there with my relation to Jump City."

"So why not talk to them to even things out?"

"They would bend my words so it suited them."

"Doesn't sound like the objective journalist's they should be?"

"Well I think most of them were, but one guy in particular had a grudge against me for not wanting to talk to any of them. He's a talk show host, usually after they had dug up something up he would stroll on screen and say he had invited me to come talk in his show about it. He stopped actually calling after the 6th time. The others just followed his lead."

"Anyone I know?"

"Gary Lionwell?" She asks.

"Oh that guy, he just wants dirt, and as far as I remember there's been several fights on his show between his guests."

"Wouldn't know, I stopped turning on the TV whenever I knew his show was on." The pair fall silent for a moment before Raven speaks again. "You know, I have been thinking as well."

"About what?" Superman is brought out of his musing about Gary, who in Clark Kent's opinion is a disgrace to his profession.

"Your day job, I think I have figured it out. Wanna hear?" She asks.

"Shoot."

"You're a journalist." Superman stares at her, not knowing he is practically confirming it by reacting with shock.

"You've been in my mind?"

"No, I don't know your name or your address; I came to the conclusion by observing you. Yesterday you reacted with surprise and a little anger that I refused to talk to the press with you, that you take me here, to a major newspaper building, to talk about journalist's leads me to believe I wounded your professional pride yesterday." Superman is silent for a second before replying in an even voice.

"I could just enjoy the view from this building and I could just be wondering why you had bad experience with the press." He argues.

"True, but there are other things, like how you always seem to be at the right place at the right time, like that new type of cruise ship that was bombed two years ago. It had a major press conference onboard to show it off, the ship was attacked far off the coast. The report of the accident stated that the bomb had an EMP charge that knocked out the radio, yet you were there instantly to save the day. Besides, you unknowingly confirmed I'm right when you stared at me when I said it, if you aren't then you would have laughed or shot it down instantly." Superman just shakes his head while smiling.

"You have been hanging out with Batman too much, ok I yield of the power of deduction, yes I am a journalist. But Batman found out the other way around, by following me home." Clark still remembers the night the two met, who'd have thought they ended up befriending each other after fighting.

"I heard from Nightwing you peeked under his cowl."

"I did, back then he was still the 'nut' from Gotham, no one knew if he was good or bad back in those days."

"Yeah I got told it took Gotham two years to think of him other than as a violent loon. Should he have talked to the press as well?"

"No, he operates in the shadows so shining a bright light on him usually ruins his mood."

"That it does." They are silent again for a few moments. "So shall we resume our patrol?"

"No, you've passed my test. You could easily have killed me today just by stepping aside for Metallo. But I would like to make a deal with you, if want to try, I know a few very good reporters who would be very interested in an exclusive interview with the 'lost' Titan."

"Like you?" She teases.

"Well I'm one of them, but would you do it, if it was kept to superheroing?" She thinks for a moment about it.

"I don't know, I've never been an open person and I've got the image of the mystic no one really knows anything about, which does help out occasionally in a fight."

"Fear of the unknown?"

"Yes, it's not that I want normal people to be afraid of me, but I just prefer keeping them at a distance."

"I can see you lean towards Batman's approach, even if you don't have to worry about people coming after you if you go out of costume."

"Look I can make you a suggestion, if I come through the needle eye of the League, you can always write an article about me based on your observations and what you can dig up." Superman thinks about it for a moment.

"Interesting, but I'd be putting my name on that."

"That's why I said if I make it through, if I do, I guess I will find out eventually, I assume the League knows of course. If I don't, well then you won't risk your secret by writing it." She says with a smile. Superman goes back to thinking about it, before a bright idea hits him, he could do the leg work and let someone else put their name on it.

"Deal."

"You're up here early?" Hawkgirl says, spotting Superman materialize on the teleportation platform, she is currently on monitor duty, but reading a newspaper.

"I finished my tour with Raven, so you're up tomorrow." Kal-El replies while flying up to her.

"Anything interesting I should know?"

"Well she's smart; according to her she worked out I'm a journalist just by observing me." He says while leaning on the console.

"Right." Shayera replies, not believing it.

"So what are you planning?" Superman asks, ignoring the disbelief in the woman's voice.

"Nothing she will enjoy I am assured, but I will find out what she is really hiding." She assures.

"Just don't do anything you might come to regret." Superman warns before leaving the Thanagarian to her paper.

"Hey Rae, wanna help out?" Cyborg looks up from his work on the ship as the blue cloaked mystic enters the workshop.

"Umm, sure." She says before unfastening her cloak, not wanting it to get oil or engine grease on it, and depositing it on a chair near the door. "Where's Garfield?"

"He headed out into the city a little while ago, said he needed to get out of here." Cyborg says while looking over the half baked ship, the structural skeleton is in place as well as some of the outer plates with the circuitry hidden behind it. He is still missing the engine's he asked Steel to build, apparently his designs are a bit tricky to grasp.

"So what do you need me to do?" She asks, hoping he didn't think she could grasp all of his designs; the car was taking so long because of that.

"Well if you wanna, you can hand me the tools, or I can set you on the circuitry needed around the engine or you can do both."

"I can do that." She says while remembering she was actually putting the computer together for her own car at the time the whole project and the tower was burned to the ground.

"Great, the soldering iron is over by the desk along with what needs putting together. I'll just call for whatever I need." Cyborg begins working again as Raven takes up the seat by the workbench, soon they are chatting idly while working as tools fly back and forth between Cyborg and their respective cases. Beastboy return sometime later but seeing the work routine he only stays a little while before deciding he is in the way of all the flying tools. Raven manages to finish five different circuit plates before having to stop due to her eyes feeling funny. Turns out they have worked to around 19:00 without realizing it, when they arrived at Cyborg's house they find dinner ready and waiting. More amazing was it actually that it was not all tofu, Beastboy had swallowed his pride, donned a pair of plastic gloves and wrapped a towel around his lower face to make real beef, surprisingly it was actually good.


	24. Dr Fate

"You're late." Hawkgirl says in an annoyed tone as Raven steps off the teleportation device.

"Depends on your perception of time when in space." Raven replies smartly, as the station is not constantly hovering over a specific time zone it can be difficult to calculate time for outsiders.

"For your information, you are two minutes late, now come on we are going to visit a friend of mine." She replies while motioning for Raven to get back on the pad, Raven sighs before moving, knowing Shayera is one of the voices of opposition.

Two minutes later the pair materializes outside a tall brick structure standing in a forest clearing near Salem, here the dawn is just creeping over the horizon. Hawkgirl walks over to the featureless wall of the structure before waving at it, making a large purple-white ankh appear, without talking Hawkgirl walks through, Raven follows a moment later with her bag of mostly unused necessities. Emerging out of the 'doorway' they find themselves in a windowless room with two doors leading into dark rooms, along the walls are lined with bookcases, plush chairs, paintings and candleholders. Where the walls are visible they turn out to be a dark blue color matching the rug covering the floor.

"Welcome to the Tower of Fate, follow me." Shayera says before walking out of the room with Raven in tow. She can feel her skin tingling, a sign of magic being used. Through the door is a railing to prevent one from falling into the dark hole in the center of the room, a staircase is leading up and down the tower along the walls.

"So what are we doing here?" Raven asks, getting a little annoyed at the lack of information the woman in front of her is giving her.

"You'll see in a moment." Is the only reply from the winged woman in the yellow training set, before she enters a square room with a rug with a circle pattern on it and a door in the opposite wall, Raven is getting a little nervous at the anxiety radiating off the woman in front of her. As Hawkgirl reaches the doorway, Raven reaches the far end of the circle on the floor from where they entered and collides with a transparent barrier that wasn't there when Hawkgirl passed through it, causing her to fall onto her back holding her smarting nose. Shayera just smiles from the doorway. "I'll get Fate, you just stay put."

"Hey what's the deal here?!" Raven shouts after the disappearing woman, receiving no reply. "Wonderful." Raven sighs before getting up. Looking around her she sees nothing of the barrier that barred her path, reaching forwards it appears again as she aims to push her hand over the circle on the floor. Revealing the entire field, that forms a cylinder around her. It has a diameter of 5 meters, its borders follow the circle pattern on the carpet and reaches the ceiling. Raven looks at the circle on the ground spotting tiny yellow glowing marks on the outside of it, reading some of it, with some difficulty, she can see it is a containment spell, a very powerful one from what she can gauge. To her mystic senses she can tell the caster is the same that reinforced the room on the space station she was kept in, only using something a lot stronger. Guessing she would have to let her anger have free reins if she would want to batter her way out like last time. She resolves to see how this plays out, and sits down in her meditative stance floating a few feet off the ground, letting her cloak and its shadows cover her form completely while she waits.

"So you are Raven? I must apologize for the current situation, but it is necessary." The resident wizard; Dr. Fate greets, wearing his yellow cloak and gloves with his blue suit and his yellow metal helmet.

"Easy to say, from your side of the barrier." Raven barbs back. "So what's your part in this besides the jar?"

"I asked him to discern your true nature and intentions." Hawkgirl says appearing behind Fate, Raven sighs before turning back to the mage.

"Somehow I don't think this is this going to be 20 Questions?"

"No, I am preparing a spell that should yield the necessary answers." Fate replies while summoning a few jars from the adjourning room.

"To questions you have yet to ask." Raven builds on his sentence. Fate just nods before pouring a black powder into his hands from one of the jars. Moving around the circle he pours careful amounts of the stuff in specific patterns onto the carpet, Raven looks on in interest while Hawkgirl looks bored.

"You're using powdered black lotus for this?" Raven asks, recognizing the smell of the flower.

"I do, it yields the clearest results. I hear you are a mage yourself?"

"I know spells, but I don't use them very often."

"How come? Magic is hard to learn."

"Not for me it wasn't, you just have to find a manipulating dragon in disguise to force it all into your head in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately he didn't provide the control needed to handle it."

"I see. Now I would ask you to be quiet while I chant." He says before pouring some purple powder from another jar, jasmine seeds from a particular mountain in the Southeast Asia. As Fate chants Raven recognizes the spell he's about to use, it is going to hurt, a lot.

"I don't suppose you could use a spell that wouldn't split me down the middle?" She asks after he comes full circle. Fate replies without looking up his pouring of small white salt grains, angle tears.

"Unfortunately your resistance to Wonder Woman's lasso leaves us with fewer options." He replies as he begins spreading the salt.

"Getting scared?" Hawkgirl asks with amusement in her voice, causing Raven to stare at her coldly.

"Maybe you want join me in here when it happens?" She asks before tuning the woman out, resorting to meditating until it happens, as well as securing nothing will happen to the spirits inside of her. Again time loses its meaning to her as Dr. Fate moves around preparing the ritual; she comes to as her skin again begins to tingle. Returning to reality she hears Fate halfway through the incantation. Sighing she stands on her feet and pulls down her hood, since they are adamant about doing it they might as well see it all. Standing there she falls back into the waiting position she used on Themyscira while waiting for Artemis to issue commands, the waiting is always the worst part when you know something bad is about to happen. She can feel the power of the spell rising in tact with the tingling of her skin, at the final stage of the incantation she finds out she can't move anymore while outside the barrier a phantom wind is raging.

"…_Azez Wabuim Ezazez…Reveal your true nature!...O Wabium Ezazez…SO FATE DEMANDS!...SO FATE DEMANDS!...SO FATE! DEMANDS!"_ As Fate finishes Raven goes rigid, her eyes goes blank and she slowly lifts into the air for a second before twitching violently. The twitching turns to shaking that finally leads to flailing, Ravens eyes go wide in pain as the spell takes its full effect.

"STOP IT! FOR AZAR'S SAKE STOP IT!" She screeches while something seems to be pushing out of her back. Shayera looks on in surprise. Raven lets out an ear piercing scream as something visibly pushes its way out of her back; the scream draws the attention of others who are present in the tower.

As a bare-chested and blond haired man with a hook replacing his left hand soon bursts into the room, followed by a hulking gold skinned humanoid with red eyes as the only feature on its face and a small woman with graying black hair, they are treated to the spectacle of Ravens demon half pulling itself completely free of her while Raven screams in pain. While Raven begins to clutch her head, the demon looks at the people looking at it with an amused look in its four eyes as the barrier cracks, before it begins to mimic Raven's actions. The pair mirror each other in their pain and movements, suddenly they both let out another deafening scream, one high-pitched the other a deep roar, as a transparent white lump floats out of their heads coming together between them forming what seems to be a city based on a floating rock. Before any of the spectators can say anything, what seems to be electricity connects the city to the two Raven's before it flashes in a blast of white and sends most of the spectators flying back into the walls, fortunately for the small woman she is caught by the unmoving humanoid before she is thrown out of the door. When they regain their sight they see Raven lying face down and motionless on the ground with smoke rising from her, and white glowing runes in a strange language levitates before them before they fade away.

"You shall not release what is imprisoned! The Portal shall not be reopened!" Fate translates out loud.

"Fate what is going on?" Aquaman asks in a stern voice.

"Is she all right?" Hawkgirl asks with a worried tone, she was told it would hurt, but she didn't know it would be this bad.

"Her biological signs are stable." The android replies in its usual calm voice.

"She will be fine, get her to a room, Shayera I will try and discern what we saw here." Fate replies before disappearing in his glowing ankh, leaving Hawkgirl to be stared at by the king of Atlantis. The android walks over and picks up Raven, his internal sensors buzzing with activity.

"Follow me." Inza says before heading out the door with the android in tow.

"Care to explain what this was about Shayera?" Aquaman asks again while extending a hand to the woman who has yet to get off the ground.

"It's a long story Arthur." She is one of the few people above and below surface that can get away with calling him by his given name.

"Try me, the League doesn't condone torture." He says while crossing his arms, indicating he wanted answers, Hawkgirl sighs.

"Three week ago we were called in by Zatanna after she had been mauled, claiming a demon was manipulating or controlling Batman and his kids. When we arrived in Gotham it was just after a battle with a large force of aliens that had come in search of Robin, we didn't know it at first; we just saw Batman and his group alone with scores of fallen aliens. Zatanna said she sensed the demon nearby so we cleared the area and ambushed it when it appeared. We tried to interrogate her, but she resisted both J'onn and Diana. And she tore through the room she was kept in, Diana and four others before she calmed down when Diana tried used her lasso on her. We found out that Zatanna had a grudge against her from years back and that she seemed to have fabricated parts of the story she told us. We came to the agreement that she should be tried to see if we can trust her as League material, it was a compromise between those of us who think she should be locked up and those who want to recruit her." She explains. "Look it may seem cruel, but she is extremely powerful and potentially dangerous and I want to know for sure that we can trust her."

"I see, you won't have you own case repeated." He says quietly before turning away.

"How is she?" Shayera asks as Inza exits the small room where Raven is being kept.

"She is still out, but seems to be mending, what wounds she might have had appear to be closing at a abnormal rate." The woman replies before walking away, leaving Shayera to sit on the chair outside the room. At the moment she was not a welcome sigh to the Atlantean king who has moved his chess board into the room to continue to get beaten by the android. It's been an hour and a half since the spell.

"Shayera." Dr. Fate says after he emerges around a corner further down the hall. "So far I have not come up with anything conclusive about what we saw, her separating into two beings was unexpected. What I can confirm however is that there are traces of an immense evil within her, as I expected to find, but it is only an echo now."

"Is this evil her own or something else? And was the city we saw?" Shayera asks.

"I do not know what that was, mental failsafe is the most likely explanation but I have not seen one such as that one. As for the evil, I am not yet certain where that of her father stops and where her own begin, with so much time having passed, lines between them have blurred."

"You don't seem surprised to find a security measure though?" She notes. "And do you mean with time passed?"

"Etrigan or Jason could tell you about a few times someone have tried parting the two for their own reasons." Fate replies. "Around five years ago, the demon Trigon came to Earth bringing nothing but ruin and fire with him. I was trapped within my tower while the world burned around me, from here I could only observe as Trigon did battle against the Teen Titans before being undone by his own daughter, an act that restored the world its previous state. None who were caught in Trigons devastation remember the event, only noticing most of a day had suddenly gone by. Now if her self-appointed guardians will allow it, I will search her mind."

"Good luck, J'onn tired that and came out empty handed." Shayera shrugs, thought all the mysteries are beginning to annoy her and that she can do nothing on her own to solve them.

"I will try nonetheless." He says before entering.

Fate finds himself in the same place as J'onn did, on the rocky path in the middle of nothing, with the ominous city floating city above him.

"_Hmm, maybe it was not a mental failsafe?"_ He wonders before spotting a green cloaked figure heading towards him. "Hello?" He greets the figure that doesn't break pace. "Raven?" He asks, finally catching a peek of the purple eyes hiding in the shadows of the hood that are boring into his.

"Out!" Is the only thing she says before squarely punching him in the head, sending him flying back to reality.

The other three look up in surprise as they see Fate's floating form suddenly crash onto his back as if someone had punched him. Shayera goes to help him up again as he clutches his head.

"Warned you, Batman did say she made J'onn's hands look like spaghetti when she ejected him."

"She seems to have a solid right hook, even when she's out." Aquaman says with a hint of mirth.

"What did you see?" The android asks.

"I saw the city again before someone who might have been her, only in a green cloak punched me." The mage replies.

"J'onn said he saw the city as well." Shayera mentions.

"Did he see anything else?" Fate asks.

"He said it is populated by ghosts and that he met a gathering of cloaked individuals, they were the ones who forced him out."

"I must think about this and have an aspirin." The sorcerer says while holding his head.

Raven wakes up several hours later, with a thundering headache and a large blurred shape leaning over her. Raven wonders briefly before opening her eyes if Trigon and Ares are having a party in her head.

"You're staring." She says at the shape that goes from burred black to blurred gold.

"Apologies I was monitoring your awakening." The shape says in a calm voice, before leaning back, but now Raven can see its red glowing eyes. Sitting up she clutches her head, while grimacing. "You are, in pain?"

"How can you tell?" Raven replies, oozing with sarcasm, something the android fails to understand.

"My readings indicate an abnormal activity in the nerves of your brain, also my observations here have let me to deduct humanoids feel pain when they rub their head like that." It explains, Raven takes a look at it after stopping rubbing her head, noting its lacking facial features and its size, it would almost be eye to eye with Zeus.

"Uh-hu, and you are?" She asks a little annoyed at the analysis.

"They call me the Android or Amazo after the acronym found on my blueprint."

"Ok Amazo, you wouldn't happen to have an aspirin?" She asks while trying to remember where she had heard that name before.

"The doctor insisted to have one ready for you when you awoke; I believe he feels the same." It replies while handing her a glass with fizzing water.

"So why is he not here now?" She asks after drinking the mixture.

"He was worried you would strike him again, it is the same with Hawkgirl and the King is currently debating with them over their course of actions."

"The King?"

"Arthur Curry of Atlantis, I am told he is better known as Aquaman while above surface." Raven remembers Aqualad telling the others about him; unfortunately she had tuned him out as it was more about his undersea adventures.

"Uh-hu, so what are you doing here?"

"Asides from monitoring your vital signs, I was asked to prevent you from becoming violent." Right now Raven is not feeling like doing much of anything, other than ridding herself of the devilish duo dancing around inside her cranium.

"Well you can relax." She says while leaning back against the wall, noticing the room only has two chairs, her bed, a small nightstand and floating game of chess. At the sight of the chess board she raises an eyebrow slightly.

"Care for a game?" The android asks as the game floats over.

Halfway through the second game, Inza enters the room to collect the glass. Raven, having halfway through the first game felt up to levitating herself and her pieces, is hovering over the bed while the android is sitting on its chair. As neither of them are moving their pieces by hand, it looks as if the pair are watching the pieces play their own game.

"I see you have recovered, I will get Kent." Inza says quietly before exiting the room again, neither of the pair looks up at her. A few moments later Dr. Fate enters with Hawkgirl who remains at the doorway. He doesn't interrupt the pair as they play. The game ends in black victory for the android a few moments later.

"Impressive this time it took me 26 moves to defeat you." Amazo says as the pieces float back into their starting positions.

"Well you can see every move and their possible outcome instantly. But I guess another round of torture is up?" She replies looking up at Fate.

"My apologies, I was aware of that it would hurt, yet I not know it would to the degree that it did." Fate replies in an apologetic tone.

"You were unaware that that particular spell was only intended to be used on beings of homogeneous origins?" Fate looks at her for a moment, prompting her to continue. "The spell you used was one of the many the lizard taught me, I read up on it and some of the others afterwards. It stated that if used on singular beings, it would give you what you expected. If used on hybrids, like me," she punctuates "you will literally split it into two separate beings. It's in the Maledictum Arcanum." Dr. Fate summons the book in question and begins browsing.

"So why didn't you do anything if you knew what was going to happen?" Shayera asks from the doorway.

"I did ask."

"I seem to be interrupting, I will be around." Amazo mentions before teleporting out of the room taking the chess board with him.

"I see, you are correct." Fate says while shutting the book. "But that still leaves us with questions to what we saw." Raven just stares at him, she couldn't remember anything during the spell other that the feeling of being torn apart.

"We saw the part of you that you used to trash Diana with." Shayera mentions. "Before a floating city grew out of your heads and put you back together."

"Afterwards it left a message; 'You shall not release what is imprisoned. The Portal shall not be reopened'." Fate finishes. "I saw the same city as I entered your mind before being violently ejected."

"You have heard of Azerath." Raven guesses.

"I have, pacifists living in a pocket dimension." Dr. Fate replies.

"Lived is the correct word, what you saw is what's left of Azerath, their spirits live within me. They prevented your spell of taking full effect, fortunately."

"Thought they would be happy to get out of a demons mind?" Shayera asks.

"Fortunately for you they won't risk setting a 90 foot demon loose, again."

"That part of you wasn't 90 feet tall." Raven rolls her eyes.

"Does this verse mean anything to you? The Gem was born of Evil's fire. The Gem shall be His portal. He comes to claim. He comes to sire. The end of all things mortal!" Raven finishes with an annoyed tone.

"It's part of an old nursery rhyme on my world meant to scare the young." Shayera replies in a bored tone.

"It was a prophecy and it was quite real, Raven was the Gem." Fate replies, surprising Raven that he actually knew that. "Legend has it that Trigon and Echthultu once fought, leaving Echthultu as the being we fought years ago. But be that as it may, we are still no closer to discerning your true nature, is it the demon or the human that rules you?"

"The demon would have killed you when it first laid its eyes on you, along with everyone else."

"Or it would say that." Shayera says in a tone that stresses she doesn't believe a word of what she is hearing; Raven narrows her eyes at the woman.

"I sincerely doubt you'd believe anything I said no matter how it comes out." Raven snaps back while letting herself float down to stand on her feet.

"Well excuse me for not trusting demons, which happen to be known liars." Raven glares at her coldly.

"Funny when this is coming from a known traitor!" Raven snaps back, causing Shayera's features to harden as her eyes grow cold.

"Ladies if you insist on this course I will have you take it outside." Fate warns, the pair continues to stare daggers at each other before Shayera turns away.

"Let me know if you find something useful." She says to Fate before stomping off, Raven sighs when she hears her footsteps fade.

"That was unwise." Fate mentions.

"I don't care. Any normal person would have punched her after waking up." Raven sits back down in her floating position.

"You punched me." Fate counters.

"One; I consider entering a mind uninvited as a gross violation of my person, two; you're lucky it was just a punch. At least two others you could have met would have tried to kill you."

"Two?" Fate asks.

"My emotions are separate entities in my mind that I keep largely subdued, that you were punched out of my mind means you met my self confidence. Had it been my anger or hatred, well, you get the idea. If you don't mind, I need to meditate before either of them gets out of hand." She explains before closing her eyes.

"Hmm, I see. I will need to speak to Shayera, I will return when you are prepared." He says before exiting.

"Hey Diana, good to see you." Superman greets as he meets the Amazon Princess in the corridors of the space station.

"Hello Kal. I see you sent Raven on."

"I have, her actions convinced me kinda quickly as well as my talks with her. So how was your time?"

"Eventful, to say the least." Diana gives him a mysterious smile. "But my mother likes her." Superman smiles at her, knowing Hippolyta is the more stubborn of the two when it comes to trust of outsiders.

"Well that's a relief. Have you talked to Bruce lately?"

"I only kept him updated on a situation that arose, but you will have to wait to hear about it. So Shayera is with her now?"

"She is, but I worry if she might have planned something that's a bit overboard." Superman admits while looking at the ground and rubbing the back of his head.

"Whatever it is, I believe she will be fine, if she doesn't kill Shayera first that is." Diana smirks at him.

_Themyscira:_

"Io? Io where are you…? What in the name of Poseidon is that?!" Antiope, walking through Io's smithy, catches sight of Io trying to keep something inside a large bronze tub filled with water, or is it her trying to keep herself from getting dragged into it?

"Funny you should ask sister, this is an octopus." Io says while raising her arms where the large cephalopod has attached itself. The soft blob of flesh and arms weigh's an easy 12kg, yet this makes no difference to the Amazon to which it has attached itself. Anitope grimaces at the sight of the thing.

"Ew, what's it doing in here?" Antiope the hunter isn't one for seafood.

"Well the fishers would have eaten it, but seeing as it's still alive, Magala wanted it. It's smart though, crawled out of the tank three times in the last hour."

"She's cooking up something for that enchantment you've been commissioned with?" The dark haired archer speculates.

"Well I figured I would try something new and went to her for some ideas, seems she had something in mind already, didn't tell me what though. Came in with this beast an hour and a half ago, telling me to keep it alive till she got back. Anyways when I'm not busy, what can I do for you sister?" She asks before lowering the beast and her arms into the tank again in hopes it will let go.

"I need a new bow." Antiope says with a hint of sadness, everyone on the island knows she gets attached to her weapons, but usually breaks them through wear and tear.

"Broke it again? No worries sister I'll see what I can make you." Io smiles at the woman before getting slapped on the back of the head for her insensitivity.

_Hall of Justice:_

"So who's with her now?" Cyborg asks Nightwing on the screen in the workshop.

"Hawkgirl I think." Nightwing replies.

"She is." Batman says as he passes by the screen in the background.

"Thank you for the update." Nightwing replies a little annoyed having his conversation interrupted and overheard. "So how's the ship coming?"

"Well all the tough stuff is done, so a week, maybe two. Steel has finally figured my engine design out and is putting them together now." Cyborg says with a smile. "So any ideas about what to do when we get there?"

"Simple, we trade Blackfire for her. The League is planning on releasing the others in manageable groups shortly so they can travel together."

"So they are not going to press charges or anything?"

"For what? We aren't at war with them and all they did 'break' was an abandoned warehouse, besides according to the interviews most of them are under aged by their own standards and ours. But they are having some difficulty figuring out what to do with her body guards."

"Won't leave without her?"

"Exactly."

"Hey is that Rob? Hi Rob!" Beastboy announces his presence.

"Hey Gar, how are you doing over there?"

"Dude I'm totally bored when Cy is working!"

"Well you could help me, you know, if you didn't have two left hands when it comes to rocket science." Cyborg adds.

"You could always direct me you know, like you did with Rae!" Garfield barbs back.

"What's this then?" Cyborg says while holding up a large red switch with two white stripes circling it.

"A red candy thingamahoot?" Beastboy replies in a dubious voice while quirking an eyebrow, meanwhile the image of Nightwing is rolling his eyes.

"That's what I had to call it when we were stuck on that planet, it's the switch for the thrusters." Cyborg replies with a smirk, remembering the time they had to rebuild the ship from scraps. Him with no hands, Robin and Starfire trying to work out themselves at the time and surprisingly Raven being treated like a queen by tiny egg shaped aliens that could only speak one word without parroting someone else.

"Why don't you go help them out?" Batman asks as he passes the screen again carrying a cardboard box.

"Yeah come-on over Rob it'll be like old times." Cyborg says with a smile, thinking of no better person to order Beastboy around.

"Cy the only one you ever let near your workspace was Raven remember?" Nightwing replies, remembering Beastboy wasn't allowed inside for obvious ham-handed reasons, the same reasons he was not allowed in Nightwing's own chemical lab. Starfire wasn't allowed on the grounds she once made off with a few bits and bobs before trying to cook them, spaghetti screws got a whole new meaning that night. Nightwing figured he himself was not allowed partially because of Cyborg wanting to keep his designs out of his reach and partially because he didn't allow Cyborg to go into some of his stuff, like his old custom built laptop. Raven was another matter, since she rarely ventured into the garage before the first T-car was built, after it was finished and blown up she would sometimes go down and help him rebuild and repair it's successors if they were damaged. Also, as Nightwing figured it, Cyborg didn't think Raven would use his designs without his permission and more importantly; try to outdo him.

"Oh? Well we will make it up to you when you get over here; cya." Victor smiles at him before killing the feed leaving no room for argument.

_The Batcave:_

"Bruce did someone get me stuck on a crazy train that doesn't stop?" Richard asks the Caped Crusader walking beneath him.

"I'm sure the Joker could arrange something like that, but if you can make those two work faster, wouldn't that be ideal?"

"I guess, say; what are you doing?" It is pretty much unheard of for Batman to redecorating the cave, but he has been moving boxes of stuff around ever since he got down there today.

"Tim has been moving things around in the storage room again; I'm trying to find Barbara's boxes. I have invited her over for lunch tomorrow."

"How did you manage to lure her out of her clock tower?" Nightwing asks as he swings down to him.

"Told her you would be there." Batman says with a smirk, getting Nightwing to wear a miffed expression. "Also I need to talk to her in person."

"Must be important." It is a rarity that Bruce simply invites anyone over simply for a talk, especially someone who he has in his ear regularly.

"She has reported Zatanna coming over to her frequently, usually quite depressed."

"That's not all, and not the real reason." Nightwing says, knowing Bruce well enough that if it was just that, he would have asked over the radio, suddenly something dawns on him. "You're going to ask her about Raven?"

"Maybe." Bruce lets one of those mysterious smiles appear again; to Nightwing the yes could not have been louder or clearer.

"Bruce you only call someone over if you have something important to say. Not that I'm complaining, but why? It usually takes people a lot longer to get your approval." Batman sighs while pushing a box out of the way.

"Regardless of what the League decides, I believe it is time someone showed her that it is not just her closest friends who appreciate what she does and for what she has done. Also she has a lot of talent and so far she has shown to be a good soldier, she could be useful here if properly trained."

"And the issue of trust you had with her?"

"I was most of all concerned that she intentionally went looking for the knowledge she had come into possession of and would use that to strike at us or betray it to someone who would. But if she has, she is the most patient predator I know of. Now I believe your friends are waiting for you in Metropolis, and don't tell them." Nightwing leaves with an odd feeling of relief at Bruce's admittance.

12


	25. Through the eyes of a Hawk

"Right; so how can you prove that you are not manipulating everyone around you?" Shayera asks. Dr. Fate had after almost an hour of negotiating between the two women managed to get them to sit down in one of his studies, with him acting as a referee keeping them on subject and calling for time out's if the talk got to temperamental.

"There is nothing I can say that would prove it, but I can if you know someone who you are confident in can't be manipulated and has the sight to see such things." Raven answers calmly. "But what I said when asked by Wonder Woman on the station, it was true."

"Yet you could resist the questions about Batman's identity." Shayera argues while poking at the glass surface of the table between them, indicating a point.

"Resisted yes, lie about it, no. Doctor you know how the Lasso works?" Raven asks.

"Yes, it compels the ones ensnared by it to speak the truth." He answers without moving.

"I know, I've seen it in action." Shayera argues.

"The Lasso compels one to speak the truth. It does not prevent one to try and resist it, I can't lie while ensnared by it, but I can dodge the question being asked. Diana asked me to say who Batman is, I promised long ago that I would never tell anyone so I resisted by saying something that was true." Raven explains. "Also I took steps long ago to safeguard the knowledge through magical means, in case I was captured by someone who wanted it."

"So you're saying the reason you could resist it is a question of formulation?" Shayera asks.

"It was, if Wonder Woman had asked if a certain person is Batman, then I would have no choice but to say yes or no, as everything else would be a lie. If I didn't know, for example, I wouldn't be able to tell her. But believe me the Lasso is not a thing you want to resist if you are me."

"I have heard demons thrive on pain?" Shayera voices one of the things she thought; that Raven might have enjoyed the pain inflicted on her.

"Demons primarily thrive on the pains of others, not their own." Raven corrects, assisted by a nod from Fate. "Most of them anyways and what you saw earlier was not something I want to experience again."

"So how can I be sure you are not influencing me or Fate for that matter?"

"He's one of the most powerful mystics on this planet, probably the most powerful mortal mage alive today, if I was manipulating him I would have to be supremely more powerful than him to do it undetected, and I would have to do it without setting off any of the many wards he has cast upon himself."

"Indeed, Shayera if one has the sight, one would see the spells. To put it into words, magic is mostly invisible to the untrained eye, but when it is visible it will look like color poured into water. The color is dictated by the nature of the spell. If I am correct Raven will see a rainbows worth of colors washing around me and in particular my helmet. For my part when I look at you, I see what you see when you look in the mirror. When I look at Raven I see the hints of the magic she uses on her cloak and clothes, which make its shadow's seem deeper than normal. Due to her nature the color is mostly black, but because of her upbringing and training it is framed by white." Fate explains.

"So what do you see when you look at my mace?" Shayera asks Fate, said weapon has been deposited in a pocket dimension as it always is when she visits.

"I see it disrupting any magic that comes into contact with it, like if you were to throw it in water. Mundane objects pass through magic like it wasn't there."

"So why didn't it harm her more than it did when I hit her?"

"Because I'm only partially magic, it is because of its nature that I sustained the damage I did. That and the following beating was not enjoyable either." Raven explains, adding the latter part.

"I see I'm not going to get a satisfactory answer out of either of you." Shayera sighs, hating she can't trust anyone or anything around the purple haired woman in front of her. She agrees internally that Raven could be completely honest that she is not doing anything, but another part of her warns that the first part could actually be Raven speaking. This is why her own people never had mystics, they couldn't be trusted and any that were found were executed as a matter of course. Again she wonders how Diana can put such faith into the mystical; being told you were sculpted from clay has something to do with it. "Look so far I am not satisfied, but I need to rest. Amazo, could you watch over her?" Shayera says out loud to no one, Raven quirks an eyebrow before the gold android seems to appear out of thin air.

"So you don't trust me alone with Fate, but you trust me with him?" Raven asks while pointing with her thumb at the android.

"For one thing, he is an android. Two; he has plowed through the entire League when he came back after our first encounter. Now, good night." Hawkgirl says before disappearing out of a door, how she is able to tell if it dark outside Raven doesn't know. Instead she turns to face the Android with a raised eyebrow.

"I was looking for Luthor to answer a question of mine; the League was in the way." It explains the unspoken question, while sitting itself down in the chair Shayera occupied. Raven finds it odd having two faceless men to talk to.

"Uh-hu." Raven thinks for a moment before asking. "She is quite stubborn."

"She is, but since she does not possess the sight, can you blame her?" While Fate is talking he walks over to browse the titles of his book.

"No. Is she a good friend of Zatanna by any chance?" Raven asks.

"Not that I know of, but Shayera's relationship with most of the League members has been strained since her return. Why do you ask?"

"The League hasn't told you of her?" Raven asks wondering how much Fate keeps or was kept out of the loop.

"Shayera only told me she was on probation for a while after lying and attacking someone. You?" He realizes.

"Yeah. She made a mistake long ago when I approached the League for help, when I resurfaced in Gotham a few weeks ago, she believed I still had ill intents towards Batman so she cooked up the mind control scenario, and here I am." Raven explains while leaning back in her seat.

"You have your aura against you, you know." Fate mentions as he pulls out a book, before flipping it open to scan its pages.

"I know, but I never got a chance to say anything before Zatanna sounded the charge back then, and I was just 14 facing off against a group of adults."

"You think she still believes that?" The android adds.

"We know she does; after Zatanna attacked me, without provocation, on the station Wonder Woman used her lasso on her."

"On another topic; would this be the name of the dragon who taught you?" Fate hands her a book named Codex Draconiucs that's been opened on a page with a name Raven remembers all too well; Malchior.

"It is." Raven hisses, her dislike if not actual hate of the dead dragon is evident even if she is trying to hide it. Mainly because several books begin to circle around the room with the help of Raven's powers, until Raven takes a deep breath and calms herself before returning them to their slots.

"Do you know what has become of him?" Fate asks as Raven notices that the book specifically mentions that the dragon was sealed away in a tome of power.

"I blew a hole in his chest over a year ago." Raven replies, guessing Fate didn't watch the news. "Do you feel that?" she asks suddenly, noticing both Amazo and Fate are staring off into space.

"Someone is making use of telepathy." Fate says in a worried tone, his home is usually guarded from such things coming from the outside world. "It's from outside the tower, stay here, I will look into it." He commands before disappearing, leaving no room for Raven to argue.

"It is his home." The android mentions.

"And you can do magic as well?" Raven asks somewhat annoyed at being stuck here.

"No, I was picking up heightened brain activity from within the tower." It replies while staring at her.

"You're staring again." Raven mentions while crossing her arms, not liking being stared at by anyone, least of all by something that's unreadable to her.

"My apologies, I merely find you fascinating. I have traveled much of the galaxy and not met someone like you before."

"Let's hope you don't meet any more." Raven grumbles. "Why am I so special then?" She sighs, noting the android is still staring.

"I was originally designed to duplicate whoever I came into contact with, adding their abilities to my own." The last part is spoken in several different voices, Raven recognizes what she thinks is Superman, Batman, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman amongst them. "I have not used this ability since I returned; having encountered many beings with similar abilities to those I have already assimilated. Yet I my scanners cannot identify what yours are."

"I would request you not trying to duplicate what I am, it is not nice." Raven says firmly, liking the android less and less.

"I cannot." It replies in the same voice it always has.

"_Raven, Amazo come to Shayera's room."_ Fate's voice sounds in their heads, the android glows slightly before they both stand in the mentioned room, finding Fate looking at Shayera who appears to be fighting off someone while asleep, while mumbling to her attacker.

"What ails her?" The android asks, as he was once just a machine, he never sleeps or dreams.

"The telepath seems to have attacked her as she fell asleep, I can't wake her." Fate replies. "Watch over her, I need to contact the League." He continues before disappearing again.

"Yipee." Raven says while looking at the woman on the bed, wondering if she would be blamed when Shayera wakes up.

"Her heart rate is rising." The android mentions calmly. Raven notes that Shayera is sweating as well.

"She's having a nightmare."

"Pardon?" The android turns it head towards her.

"Umm, in short; she thinks she is experiencing something bad that is not real." Raven walks over to the bed an grabs Shayera's shoulders and begins to shake her. "Shayera wake up! Come on WAKE UP!" She shouts, making no change in the situation. "She's too far gone; the telepath is keeping her asleep."

"If her heart rate keeps rising, my predictions say she will expire in a matter of 52 minutes." As if on cue Fate returns.

"It is a man called Dr. Destiny, the League has fought him once before. We are under orders not to sleep until he is apprehended. But we need to help Shayera in case they can't locate his human body." Fate informs them before sitting himself cross legged above Shayera. "Would you put her arms under the sheet?" Raven tucks the limbs under the sheet before Fate makes the bed sheets pull tight around her, effectively shorting her sheets. Fate relaxes his form before sitting motionless above her. After a few moment of nothing he sighs and lowers his head. "Her natural resistance to telepathy is barring my path into her mind. How Destiny did it I am not sure, but I cannot go the same way without risking damaging her mind."

"23 minutes, her heart rate just went up." Amazo warns, as Shayera moans loudly while moving against the sheets that's pinning her down.

"Nothing you can do?" Raven asks the pair.

"I would need to search my library something which there is not time for."

"I do not know if I can add anything to this." The android continues.

"Can you?" Fate asks Raven.

"I can try." She says before sitting down next to Shayera in the same position as Fate. Closing her eyes and emptying her head of all stray thoughts, she slowly lets her consciousness drift towards the woman. Sensing resistance, she halts before observing the colorful bands dancing between her and her destination, before continuing through the holes between the bands. The next obstacle seems to be a grey wall, impossibly tall, again she halts.

"Raven." Fate's voice sounds behind her, looking back she spots his astral form, a glowing white ghost, a contrast to her own black, four eyed raven shape.

"Fate, come on."

"I cannot, the bands move too fast for me." He sends back switching to talking to her telepathically. Ravens shadow form moves back to him before embracing him and moving forwards again, letting him out on the other side of the first barrier.

"I assume we don't see the same thing in here." Raven speculates, before eying the wall "Big grey wall."

"Hmm, follow me." Fate says before moving forwards to a certain place on the wall, before pushing through it, dragging Raven behind him.

Emerging through the barrier the pair finds themselves on a barren world of red-brown stones and sand with many craters marking the surface, above them the sky is red with black thunderclouds churning around. But the world is not what catches their attention; it is the group of agitated grey shapes standing away from them shouting at something, or someone. They fly closer cautiously, hearing what is being shouted.

"TRAITOR!" One voice rises.

"MURDERER!" Another rises as well as many others of the same caliber.

As Raven and Fate flies above unnoticed by the mob they see the ones in the back are really only grey shapes with no features at all, the closer to the center of the mob they see them gaining more and more features, shapes of clothes, wings, weapons, the closest are copies of the real things and the figure in the middle of it all is the real thing.

Hawkgirl, wearing shackles around her wrists, wings and ankles is being herded by shoves, kicks and short periods of dragging through the crowd by members of the League, regular people and Thanagarians, all shouting abuse at her and throwing objects at her. Whenever she is pushed, she falls, which leads to kicks before being picked up and dragged onwards. Shayera begins to yell and struggle when she sees the destination she is being herded towards, an open grave with a vacant coffin waiting next to it.

"She's a claustrophobic, if they get her inside the coffin she will die!" Fate says, before diving down towards the Superman image dragging the screaming Shayera after him. "Away from her!" He commands as he lands before the image, waving his hand he summons a gust of wind that blows the specters away, except Superman who just smirks before his face turns skeletal and his uniform turns into a sky blue hood and cloak over a a blue jacket and pants.

"You're good, but I'm better." Dr. Destiny says before dropping Shayera's feet and charges the magician. Before he makes contact Raven swoops down and slams him into the ground, he retaliates by entangling them in his cloak that splits in two and lifts them into the air. As they struggle the phantoms reappear and begin to drag Shayera closer and closer to the casket.

"Obet!" Fate yells, creating a blast to flatten Destiny and blowing the specters away again. "Raven can you track him?"

"I can, but..."

"Go! Find him! I will keep him busy!" Fate yells before sending stream of light towards Destiny who has gotten to his feet again and dodges the attack before Ravens black form dives into him disappearing from the mindscape and sending her back to reality.

Collecting her body and explaining to the android, Raven teleports out of the tower to the location she saw where Destiny is hiding, an old dockside warehouse in Metropolis belonging to Lexcorp. Noticing it really is night outside she hovers inside the darkened building, she can see it has been a long time since it has been used as its intended purpose, with cracked and broken crates littering the arrival room of the building she is in. Moving inside the assessment is punctuated when she notes the dripping of water from a leaking pipe somewhere, not wanting to get ambushed she pauses in the empty hallway to send her soul-self out to search for the man hiding in the building. Chanting softly to herself she starts to lose herself as she separates her soul from her body, the task leaves her vulnerable to the figure that's sneaking up behind her.

"HMPF!" Her shocked shout is silenced by the glove that covers her mouth, and the other arm wrapped around her midsection prevents her from just jumping away blindly.

"Easy Rae, it's me." Nightwing whispers into her ear before letting go.

"What are you doing here?!" She whispers loudly, quite agitated for being sneaked up on.

"Just saw you head in here, what are you doing here?" He counters, wondering what she is doing in Metropolis in the middle of the night and with Hawkgirl nowhere in sight, Raven takes a deep breath.

"Dr. Destiny has attacked Hawkgirl while she slept, I've tracked him here. Everything else will have to wait!" She explains before trying to focus again, Nightwing immediately goes into 'hero' mode and moves ahead silently.

"Any idea where he is?" He whispers over his shoulder.

"First floor, north east corner." He nods before running off, Raven sighs but has no time for this. Levitating through the ceiling the takes off her boots and changes into her demon form, this need to end quickly. Leaving her boots behind, she sprints through the building finding the man in the corner, hiding behind a few crates.

Nightwing's P.O.W.

There was a time when I would have yelled at Raven; 'Titans GO!" for no other reason than it sounded cool and that I was signaling her into battle. But working with Bruce again has taught me to be quiet again, so why am I still surprised to find Raven isn't behind me as I move forwards? No matter, it is pure chance I'm here, after having spent an amusing day helping Cyborg with ordering Beastboy around the workshop; I couldn't resist seeing how Metropolis' 'nightlife' is. Bruce hates it, too open and neat for him, not to mention well lit.

As I move through the ruined crates silently, I wonder what this Dr. Destiny is capable of. Bruce once told me about him, that he was a low level convict that used a machine on himself that gave him psychic powers to enter and control people's dreams, he had used those powers to kill his ex-wife and tried to kill several of the founding Leaguers while they slept. But Bruce had mentioned the good doctor could alter what was seen in the real world when he was close to someone. I hear a scream and the sound of crashing crates, tells me someone has been found and didn't like it.

Spotting the stairs leading up to the next floor I silently run over, pure habit. As I am half way up the stairs I see a man of around 40 years, in a grey prison uniform with brown, graying, hair turn around the corner at the top and race down the stairs while looking behind him. It happens too fast and the stairs are too cramped for me to avoid him. He bowls into me with a surprised yelp, knocking us both back down the stairs, the world spins and I hear a crunch and scream from him as my shoulder lands on something before we both come to halt at the foot. Picking myself up quickly I see him lying on the floor clutching his right arm with his left, and a pained expression on his face. He looks up at me, seemingly relieved to see me, by the look in his eyes.

"Help…monster!" He says, biting back the pain.

"And here I thought we were going to be friends." Raven says, I turn to see her standing in her demonic shape with her hood and cloak behind her, I note her leotard has changed. As she walks down I see the pale light coming from outside seems to highlight her figure, those two weeks on Paradise Island has really has had its effect on her, I can actually spot a small six pack hidden beneath her leotard and her sleeves seem to be struggling to contain her arms. I can hear the man trying to get up, but I'm too caught up by the sight to notice. I'm snapped out of it as several crates move behind me to block his way, and much of the light, leaving Ravens glowing yellow eyes as the only source of light. "Earth to former Boy Wonder?" Suddenly I'm glad we are in the dark, I must be blushing heavily, judging from the heat I can feel in my cheeks.

"Um, sorry. So you found him I guess?" I try to cover up, probably failing miserably. Why am I acting like this?

"He looks scarier when he's using his powers." She notes before walking over to illuminate the whimpering man lying at the crates using nothing but her eyes.

"Don't…please don't kill me!" He stammers as she reaches for him, as he tries to back away. Placing a thumb on his head, he goes rigid before slumping against the crates, apparently out cold.

"He will be out for a few hours, I need to get back to the tower before Hawkgirl blames me for it all. Nice seeing you again." She says before disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving me to stare at nothing and with a ton of unanswered questions, I want to go home now.

3rd Person P.O.V.

Raven appears in her human form outside Shayera's room to the sound of sobbing coming from the inside. Cautiously opening the door, she sees Shayera hugging Inza while crying her eyes out. Inza's husband is standing silently in a corner, apparently uninjured, and the android in the opposite corner with its back to Raven. Fate notices her standing in the doorway.

"_She's fine, but the experience has affected her."_ He sends.

"Hush Shayera, it's ok." Inza says in a soothing voice, making Shayera heave for breath and opening her bloodshot green eyes, noticing Raven's presence. Ravens mentioned fear become a reality as she reads the anger beginning to radiate off the woman.

"You…you did this, you forced this upon me!" She gets up, pushing Inza out of the way. Before trying to leap at Raven with her bare hands, being stopped halfway by Amazo, who catches her around her midsection in midflight.

"She did not; she went to stop the one responsible." It says in its calm voice, but Shayera will not hear of it and tries to push against it clawing at Raven on the other side before being put down.

"No, she went to congratulate him!" Raven shrinks back in the doorway before the hysterical woman dodges away from Amazo and comes running for her, Raven does the first thing that comes to her mind and retreats in a cloud of smoke.

"Shayera! Sleep and dream no more tonight." Dr. Fate appears besides the redhead and places a hand on her head, causing her to fall asleep instantly. After guiding her back into bed, Fate motions for the others to follow him out.

"You wish for them to stop." Inza says as her husband closes the door.

"I do, we cannot let them end up at each other's throats, I will inform the League that they are done here. Will you go find Raven, I can sense she is still in the tower." The pair nods at him as he is swallowed by his ankh.

"So how's Aqualad?" Inza hears Ravens voice from the study, walking to the doorway she sees her and Aquaman sitting in the chairs. The King looks a bit miffed at the question before he realizes who she is talking about apparently they had been talking about something else before this question was brought up.

"He's not gone by that name for years now, he calls himself Tempest now. I can't tell you anymore, because we are currently not on speaking terms. But he seemed fine the last time I saw him. How are the other Titans?"

"They are fine, grown up to a certain degree but fine, except Starfire." A note of sadness enters Ravens voice at the mention of the alien. Arthur quirks one of his bushy eyebrows. "We learned two weeks ago that she never returned home to what she told the rest of us was waiting for her. She fell into an ambush and has now been kept prisoner for over four years now."

"I see, so why are you still here then?" He asks.

"The League does not possess the means for us to get to Tamaran, Cyborg has been busy these last two weeks trying to build a ship that can. In the meantime the League has me proving my worth to them, after I've been accused of manipulating everyone around me." At this point Inza enters the room.

"Raven? My husband wishes to inform you that your time here is over, we cannot let it continue the way it is. He has gone to inform the League."

"They haven't been torturing you again?" Aquaman asks sternly, Raven guesses his talks with the others did not end up favorably for him.

"No, some crook called Dr. Destiny attacked Shayera in her dreams, I went to find his human body, after dealing with him I returned and Shayera attacked me." Aquaman sighs at her story. "Anyways, Inza will you thank your husband for letting me stay for this long, and let him know I have returned to Gotham. Farewell your Highness." Raven gives the King a short nod before she disappears as well.

"Shayera is too stubborn sometimes." Aquaman mentions.

"Your Highness?"

"I've known of Raven through Tempest, according to him, she is terrified of being left alone and that she does have a bad side, but you always knew when it was there. He said that, this side of her was not manipulative, it was violent and aggressive."

"She may have changed since then?"

"She may, but Tempest also mentioned that the one thing Raven feared more in those days than being left alone, was giving in to her father."

"Here you are." Batman says quietly behind the figure standing near the edge of the buttresses on the Gotham Cathedral.

The massive cathedral is an exceptional structure for its area, its spires easily three times the height of any structure near it, a clever decision of the city council to make it seem even more imposing, all of the skyscrapers are standing several blocks away from it, making it seem like a lonely structure when looking at the skyline. Dawn is only minutes away as the two can see in the east.

"Here I am." The blue cloaked figure replies with a flat tone.

"Heard you where heading to Gotham. Want to talk about it?" Batman had been told by Mr. Terrific that Ravens time with Hawkgirl had been cancelled, and why.

"What's there to say? I tracked Dr. Destiny down, left him to Nightwing, returned and got blamed for almost killing her." Raven replies in her monotone voice.

"You've tried something like this before." Batman states while moving to stand besides her.

"Getting attacked by the ones you saved, yeah. Happened a few times in Jump City. First time was probably the worst, because it came as a complete surprise. I stopped a bank robbery and a group of the religious protestors that had joined the press' crusade caught me by surprise." She doesn't mention the beating she received by the group before she managed to teleport out, or that it was good that there wasn't any calls for her in almost two weeks after that.

"You'll never get used to those situations." Raven wonders if he is just pretending to be sympathetic or not.

"Is it worth it?"

"You know the answer to that already. We are both regarded by most of the population as scary and unpredictable; that gives us an edge in what we do. Arguably both of us would rather we could have lived normal lives and see others risk theirs, but we can't, not now." Batman answers.

"Do you ever wish it was different?" Raven continues.

"Every day I wish I didn't have to do what I do. But if you ask me if wished that I never became the way that I am, then I remember how many would have to go through what I did. How many people would the Joker and the others have murdered before the police finally caught them, only because I didn't exist?"

"So you say we are stuck in what we do, because of our compulsion to save people, even if they hate us?"

"They fear us, only the fewest hate us."

"Ever wanted to be as popular as Superman?" She asks offhandedly.

"Not really, but I can balance it out when I'm in civilian." They both smile slightly at that, even if neither has looked at the other. "Do you?"

"I'm not sure if I could handle it, but appreciated once in a while wouldn't go amiss." They are silent for a moment before Raven speaks again. "I made a deal with Superman." It makes Batman turn his head to look at her before she continues. "I managed to figure out that he is a reporter, by observing him while we patrolled Metropolis together. He said that he would like to help me get a better relationship with the press and wanted an interview, I told him I couldn't, based on the experience I have with journalists. Instead I offered him the idea that, if I pull through the Leagues eye, he could write an article about me based on his observations and whatever information he could dig up."

"So you can be looked at more favorably but still keeping you mysterious?" Batman speculates.

"That's the idea."

"A reporter once did something like that for me, but that was without me green lighting it." He admits, he had known what she was doing as she showed up at every crime scene he did. Unfortunately for her, the story was printed the same time as he had fought a major battle with Killer Croc, so hers was mostly forgotten. But he did leave a note for her.

"Was it any good?"

"Her story was pushed aside for bigger news. But I did leave her a note of appreciation of her work." They enjoy the next few moments in silence as the sun rises from its watery bed.

"So where was Nightwing tonight?"

"Metropolis, he was encouraged to go help your friends build the ship. But I found out he decided to sample its nightlife as well, he should be back by now. Want to come with me?" Raven looks at him with a questioning look from within her hood.

"You came out looking for me?" She asks with her usual monotone voice.

"Alfred heard you were coming, so he sent me out to look for you." Batman drifts back in his 'business' voice as he answers, the small smile he gives, tells Raven that the elderly butler was not the only reason.

"Well we wouldn't want to disappoint Alfred, would we?" She lets on a similar smile to Batman's as she finishes.

"Want a ride?" He asks.

"Sure."

* * *

Authors Note: Sry about the repost of Dr. Fate, turned out I was uploading from the wrong folder.


	26. Meeting Ms Gordon

"Ah, miss Raven, so good of you to join us again." Alfred's cheery greeting almost has all of Richards's oatmeal come out of his nose, but he manages to limit it to only some of the milk leak through, he choughs the rest of his food down with difficulty. Tim snickers at his older 'brother', he is getting ready for school and Richard only got back from Metropolis 30 minutes ago, hungry and in need of a shower. Not expecting a visitor before lunchtime, Richard is sitting in a white t-shirt and blue boxer shorts.

"Thank you Alfred. Easy Richard, no one's sneaking up on you." Raven replies, not failing to notice her former leader almost choke on his breakfast. She had been told by Bruce to head up to the kitchen, he needed to change and a shower. She is wearing her hood down and has her cloak behind her shoulders.

"Morning Raven." Tim waves at her, afraid to get overlooked.

"Good morning Timothy." Raven smiles back, before sitting down next to Richard. "You all right, o fearless leader?"

"Yeah…" He coughs. "Just didn't expect you."

"Care for some coffee?" Alfred asks, walking over with a steaming pot. Raven waves him off.

"No thank you, I need some sleep as well. Some water would be nice." Alfred nods before returning with a glass.

"So either she was impressed over the hills by you, or…" Richard gets cut off.

"She blames me." Raven answers with a flat tone. Richard from his long association with her knows she is hiding her feelings on the matter.

"Who blames you for what?" Tim asks with his mouth full, Alfred sighs at the sink.

"Not now Tim." Richard snaps.

"It's ok, ever heard of Dr. Destiny?" Raven asks the current Boy Wonder.

"Umm, dream stalker, tried to kill the League a few years ago Freddy Kruger style." Tim rolls off.

"Well he made another bid for Hawkgirl last night, after Richard and I found him; Hawkgirl blamed me for the whole thing." Raven explains shortly.

"Did you fight her?" Tim continues in an overly optimistic tone, Richard gives him one of his 'shut-up!' stares, which goes completely unnoticed by Tim, as usual.

"Tim; school." Bruce commands as he enters the kitchen barefooted with a white t-shirt and black training pants with wet hair.

"Morning to you too." Tim pouts before heading out of the kitchen.

"Cute kid." Raven mentions before taking a sip of water.

"Unfortunately his wisdom of those awful movies is greater than those of his manners." Alfred replies while serving Bruce his usual oatmeal. "If you will excuse me, he needs a chauffeur to school." Alfred waits for Bruce's nod of approval before leaving the kitchen.

"Alfred only drives him to a corner near the school, Tim finds it embarrassing having Alfred following him to the door." Bruce mentions before taking his first spoonful.

"Tim reminds me of a certain green monster we know." Raven notes at Richard.

"Don't mention him this early, Victor had me directing him around yesterday." Richard says before diving back into his breakfast, leaving the room in silence for a few moments.

"So you got into Shayera's mind?" Bruce asks, not bothering with hiding his interest.

"I did." Raven answers.

"And she didn't feel anything from it?"

"I'm not sure. She was, well, really upset when I got back." Like Artemis' self doubt and Diana's drunken state, Raven decides to shield Hawkgirl somewhat.

"She mentioned a Thanagarian J'onn forced his way into, ended up brain damaged as a result." Bruce mentions.

"Fate tried getting in before me but couldn't, when I tried I was met by a barrier I could bypass and he could not, but there was another behind it I couldn't get past at first, but Fate could. Our perceptions of the barriers weren't the same."

"So if you only saw a pit, he would see the bridge?" Dick asks trying to imagine what Raven saw.

"Yes." Raven answers flatly, remaining silent for a moment. "So when do I have to go back to the League?"

"J'onn will come here when his shift ends this evening." Bruce says shortly. "I suggest you get some rest before that."

"She's not meeting Babs?" Richard asks, getting Bruce to stare at him while he crews his food, Raven quirks an eyebrow behind his back.

"Babs?"

"Barbara Gordon. Depends, if you're awake at the time and where you will be sleeping." Bruce replies before taking another spoonful.

"Uh, the cave, if it is ok with you?" Bruce nods while chewing, Raven stretches. "Ok, I'll head down there now, I'll see you later." She says before heading out the door. They both wait a few moments before talking.

"She's grown." Bruce mentions.

"Are you sure Diana didn't leave Raven on Themyscira and bring one of her sisters back with her instead?" Richard asks, from the limited contact he's had with Amazon's, Raven certainly looks like one to him.

"Pretty sure, I'll have to ask Alfred to see if she wants any other modifications done to her outfit." Bruce's suggestion sets off a train of embarrassing thoughts in Richards mind, some he didn't mind so much, and others he could do without.

"Bit old for her, aren't you?"

"I just noticed her sleeves are tight enough to restrict blood flow." Bruce says flatly.

"Right." The thoughts in Richards mind, the ones he could have done without, suddenly take over his mind.

"I'm not the one staring at her midsection." Bruce continues flatly, smirking while Richard grows red in embarrassment, making him wish he had Raven's control over his emotions. "Anyways we need to get a few hours as well before Barbara arrives."

"So, another day, another few percent of the ship." Victor says to his buddy as they enter the workshop.

"Rob's not coming by today?" Beastboy asks, fearful that he would have to take orders from him again.

"Na, said he was meeting someone today, remember?" Beastboy's mind quickly works out another question.

"You don't think it's the lady kind?" He asks grinning.

"Don't know, anyways you are obviously thinking about Rae; he hasn't seen her since she took off to Paradise Island. So since you obviously still have the hot's for her, why haven't you asked yet?" Cyborg gives Garfield a knowing smile; Garfield just narrows his eyes at him.

"Dude, I tried. But she said she couldn't." Victor's eye goes a little wide at the acknowledgement. "I asked her if we ever had anything, she said we couldn't be more than friends. It before I left the Tower." Beastboy drops down on a seat.

"None of us were the best of friends back then, so why not try now?"

"Guess I realized over the years my feelings towards her is more like yours Vic, only she's the big sister to me." Garfield looks him square in the eyes as he says it.

"So the hovering is?" He asks, wondering if Beastboy would completely freak if Raven was with someone that wasn't him.

"Dreaming."

"You know; if you want that dream to become reality, you better hurry before Rob decides to make a move on her." Cyborg says while picking out a few tools.

"Na it's ok, I dream that she's a different person…that she could be a different person. And I can't make Rae become that person, she'd kill me if I asked her to." Cyborg sighs as he recognizes where this is going. "If Rob makes her happy, then I will be happy for them."

"Not all girls are the same B, and Rae can never be Terra, they have different qualities that make them unique. And you're right; she would kill you if you asked her to dye her hair blond. Who knows, Terra might come back one day?"

"I wish." Beastboy says, looking at the floor, Cyborg begins working. Almost an hour passes while the two only engage in light talk, until they hear a knock on the wall near one of the doors. They both look up mildly surprised to see Hawkgirl standing there.

"Umm, aren't you supposed to be with Raven?" Beastboy asks.

"I was, but our session was cut short." She says while crossing her arms. "I need to know what kind of person she is." Beastboy and Cyborg look shortly at each other in understanding, Raven and Hawkgirl had not left each other on favorable terms.

"Sure, what do you want to know?" Cyborg asks, internally wiping the days planned progress on the ship off his slate, adding instead his need to know what passed between the two.

"Miss Gordon, welcome back to Wayne Manor. And to you, of course, Miss Lance." Alfred greets the pair of women standing outside the front door. Dinah Lance, better known in the world as Black Canary, is a blond in a brown trench coat with fishnet stocking sticking out beneath it and into her black combat boots. Barbara Gordon is a red head with square yellow-tinted glasses, as always now, in her wheelchair. Covering her brown canvas pants and mint green sweatshirt is a white trench coat.

"Thank you Alfred. Dinah I'll call you when I need a pickup." Barbara says to the woman behind her, who lets Alfred take over the handles of the wheelchair.

"Take care, Babs." Dinah replies before walking back over the rock covered driveway to the black custom built car they had arrived in. It looks like any normal sedan, but it is built so Barbara can get in and out of the back seat without leaving her chair, and it is also built so she can drive it if necessary.

"So how was your trip Miss Gordon?" Alfred asks as he pushes her up the ramp covering a part of the steps of the staircase leading up to the front door while Dinah starts the engine, the ramp was something Richard and Bruce had set up after breakfast.

"Like all trips through Gotham in the middle of the day, packed and boring. So how are things here?" She asks while being guided through the house.

"Oh like always as you probably know, the city calls and they answer. And how about yourself?"

"Likewise, busy, busy." She replies with a smile. "So do you care to tell me why I have been summoned?"

"I would suggest you ask him that yourself." Alfred replies with a smile as he pushes her through the doors leading out into the vast garden behind the manor. They can see Bruce and Richard sitting at a white painted wood table with a large dark green sunscreen providing them shade from the midday sun. Richard waves at them with a smile while Bruce gets up to greet her.

"Welcome Barbara, thank you for coming." Bruce says while bending down to kiss her hand, getting a giggle out of her.

"Why thank you Mister Wayne, who could resist an invitation from you? But I am curious why?" She says sounding amused, while Bruce takes over from Alfred, pushing her to the table.

"We will discuss that later, first we will have lunch." He says, Richard notes inwardly Bruce may have taken note of what he said about not inviting anyone over other than for business.

"So how have you been Dick, it's been a while since I've seen you." She asks while Richard gets up and gives her a kiss on the cheek. It is true; they had only seen each other a few times since he had returned to Gotham.

"I've been fine, thank you, busy, but nothing to worry about." He says while leaning back, enjoying everything around him. "How about you?"

"Well I'm still stuck behind my screens, company keeps me busy." All present knows her company is a front to what she is really doing; probably the best information broker the League has.

"So all is well and good." Richard replies with a smile.

"I do hope that it will be after you have had a taste of my specially prepared sandwiches." Alfred says while pushing over a trolley with a large plate of them along with a selection of drinks.

They all agree with him after the lunch, during which much humor was shared between two of the participants, Richard shared stories featuring him and his friends and Barbara shared some of hers, involving herself and her all female squad of operatives. Bruce chuckles along at some of the more exceptional ones, like the phony newspaper Victor Stone made just to upset his vegetarian buddy and a story involving Dinah singing in the shower. After lunch they move into the study Raven declared her desire to prove herself worthy of Batman's trust. After having settled down around the coffee table, the 'business' personalities take over, replacing Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson and Barbara Gordon with Batman, Nightwing and Oracle.

"So Bruce, why am I really here? Not that I don't enjoy a lunch with you and Richard, but it's not like you to invite anyone over just to enjoy their company." Barbara asks.

"You have talked to Zatanna?" Bruce asks the rhetorical question Barbara knows it is.

"Of course, she said you kicked her out of the League in favor of someone new, but I want your side of this as well."

"As you know I consulted you about the Shadow. " She nods at Bruce remembering that she was asked to see if she could find mention of it anywhere and see if anyone was or had employed it. "Richard found out who it was about four weeks ago when it confronted Etrigan."

"I will send flowers." Barbara replies dryly. "Who was it?"

"Etrigan was the one who got beaten up that night, it turns out the Shadow is my former teammate from Jump City; Raven." Richard explains, Barbara gives him a questioning look.

"The edgy, half-demon Goth with emotionally fueled powers? I thought she was missing?"

"Well she turned up here in Gotham. After introductions were made she committed herself to proving she could be trusted, since she knew our identities by accident, I set her out to infiltrate the False Facers. After getting hired she encountered an old acquaintance from Jump City." Bruce continues.

"Slade." Richard hisses still resenting the man now trapped in Arkham.

"Deathstroke, the Terminator. Who had been hired by an extraterrestrial monarch to track down and capture the Robin from Jump City. Raven's job became split as I had her look into him as well as Roman, with additional orders to call me if she could corner Deathstroke in an isolated area."

"I guess she had a fool proof disguise to pull this off." Barbara enquires already knowing the reply.

"She did haunt Gotham for weeks without us realizing it." Richard mentions.

"Anyways, while undercover she was cornered by Zatanna and they ended up in a fight, with Zee coming out on the losing end. After this Cyborg and Beastboy appeared in Gotham looking for Raven, where they were both captured by Deathstroke. Raven was, while in disguise, lent to Deathstroke to interrogate them. She turned the tables on him here and took him down."

"Hold up, the man is on par with you when it comes to fighting and you say she took him down?"

"He's is in Arkham now, jumping at shadows." Richard mentions, a little satisfaction leaking into his voice.

"In short she just did what she had been doing all the time in Gotham, just amplified." Bruce continues.

"She scared the man into insanity? That's usually a bit overboard from how we usually play this." Barbara mentions.

"Considering our past with the man and her powers, I'm actually amazed she didn't just kill him and have the body disappear, I know she could have done that." Richard defends.

"You told me he once died, and then returned only to torment her." Barbara continues.

"Anyways, he told Raven that he had been tasked by the alien Blackfire, Starfire's sister, to capture Robin for unspecified reasons. After tipping off your father about Black Mask, we set an ambush for the invaders. At the conclusion of the fight, Zatanna brought the League down on Raven, having told them she was using mind control on all of us involved in the fight. And that included me, Richard, Tim, the two former Titans and luring Etrigan along with the promise of a fight. During the interrogation of her by the League, she resisted J'onn and Diana, surprising us all by going haywire on Diana and beating her unconscious in a fit of rage. The League eventually came to the conclusion that they had been mislead in their assault on Raven and decided to give her a special tryout, because she couldn't be read. After being given the offer she retreated to think about it, eventually consulting her friends in the stations cantina, where she was confronted by Zatanna. Raven wanted no conflict, turned away from her and was attacked. Diana used her lasso on Zatanna when we all arrived after the first blow, uncovering that Zatanna was fabricating parts of her story in fear of being replaced." Bruce continues without getting interrupted, Barbara remains silent for a moment after he stops before speaking.

"Zee gave me the whole brainwashed story as well, though she came clean about the truth about it, I just don't get why she's doing this instead of working it all out."

"You know they have a history together?" Barbara shakes her head at Richard's question; it was before Oracle came to be. "Before I met her in Jump City, Raven had approached the League for help. Before she even got a chance to ask, Zatanna had the present Leaguers try and contain her because she got bad vibes from her. Just a note, I thought I met her by chance in Jump till a few weeks ago as well. Turns out that chance wears a cape and cowl." He says while he nods with his head at Bruce.

"Ok, so I guess the League has her doing all sorts of things for them to prove herself, but why tell me about this?" Barbara's question finally prompts Bruce to speak his intentions.

"I want her here Barbara, no matter what the League may decide"

"You want her in the 'clan'?" She asks with widening eyes in surprise.

"I do, she is capable of many things and she is highly intelligent, resourceful while she is still able to learn. And for all the things she has already done, I think it's about time someone showed her some appreciation for it. She will have to follow the rules, but those seem to fit her already. I'm not going to ask you to hand her your name and badge, those are yours and yours alone to hand over, but I would like your blessing of this extension." Bruce's list makes Barbara fall into silence again, thinking before asking the next question.

"And you had no influence in this?" She asks Richard, knowing how fond he is of his old teammates.

"None, I was as surprised as you when he mentioned it to me." He explains. Barbara is internally running through a list of things she has read matches the empath and the 'clan'; anti-social, loner, shrouded in darkness and troubled, none of them will admit it but all of the clan members are at some level. Sighing she knows the only thing she could have against this, is Zatanna's story which is proving to be as full of holes as Swiss-cheese, still there is one other thing.

"Ok, I will give you my blessings for this, but I want to meet her before I do." The two men give her a smile each.

"Figured you would." Bruce says. "Alfred would you prepare some herbal tea?" He calls out, knowing his old butler is always within earshot. "Richard would you mind?" Bruce motions for his ward to push Barbara along. "Oh and one more thing, she doesn't know about this. And I'd like to keep it that way until the League comes to a decision."

"I'll do it just fine myself when I know where we are going." Barbara argues rolling a bit away from Richard.

"The cave." Bruce replies shortly.

"She not injured, is she?" Barbara asks, somewhat worried about what exactly the League has had Raven do.

"No, she just prefers sleeping down there. At least it's the only place she has slept while here." Richard mentions while following behind Barbara and Bruce out of the study. "Don't worry, she has been offered a room, but she had herself guard the manor entrance down there while a curious changeling and his cybernetic buddy slept there as well."

"Good, I was almost thinking you were just growing rude." Barbara jokes. As they make their way to the clock with the entrance, they meet up with Alfred, carrying a metal tray with a steaming cup of tea on it. "So I don't suppose you have installed a wheelchair ramp here yet? Or is there a reason we aren't using the other entrance."

"If you will allow it, I will carry you, and Richard will take the chair." Bruce mentions.

"And the reason why you don't just wake her and have her come up is?" She asks skeptically.

"Because you really need to see this." Richard replies, hoping inwardly Raven is doing her 'vampire sleep' as Beastboy calls it, they aren't using the entrance with the lift because it is quite noisy.

"Oh very well, but only because it's you. So what is the tea for?" She asks.

"We learned from Master Jason that demons can occasionally be very hard to wake when they sleep, but the smell of favored nourishment can bring them around." Alfred mentions, reminded of the surprise he got when he met the empath.

"Uh-hu. Now I'm getting intrigued." Barbara mentions as she is lifted up, bridal-style by Bruce who turns and enters the clock entrance.

"Something tells me she is not sleeping in the guestroom." Barbara notes as Richard is scanning the ceiling. "Or are you looking for your favorite bat?"

"I am looking for her." Either she is gone or she had moved from the stalagmite near the stairs, because he can't see her. After unfolding Barbara's chair he gets a flashlight and begins to scan the ceiling with it. "Ah there she is." His cone of light shines on what in the dark just looked like a very large stalagmite covered in a swarm of bats suspended over the sheer drop down into the harbor below with her back turned towards them.

"She sleeps like that?!" Barbara asks with disbelief in her voice.

"Sometime she does, Jason explained that she is very heavy sleeper like that. But if she sleeps normally she is a light one. She's called it a form of trance she enters, her body is still effectively asleep but her mind is still aware." Richard explains. "Alfred do you want to do the honors?"

"Of course Master Richard." They all follow the butler to the memorial platform that is the closest to her. They see her beginning to move a bit when they get close.

"Morning already?" Raven asks in a very sleepy voice before yawning.

"Afraid it's only afternoon Rae, there's someone we want you to meet." Richard calls up to her, getting her to turn and look down on them.

"Oh, hello." She waves shortly at Barbara before turning to the bats hanging on her. "Guys, vamos." One by one the small swarm drops off her till she is bat free, afterwards she drops down herself.

"Miss Raven this is Miss Gordon." Alfred introduces.

"Well hello, Barbara will do." She says while extending her hand, which Raven take in a firm grip.

"Pleasure to meet you." Raven replies while shaking hands.

"Quite a grip you have." Barbara notes while rubbing her somewhat tender hand after letting go.

"Sorry, got back from two weeks of Amazon training a few days ago." Raven says wondering how much she had changed; she didn't apply any pressure in that grip, unlike the one she gave Jinx.

"Wonder Woman's test?" Barbara asks.

"Her mother's actually, Wonder Woman was planning on only a few rounds of sparring. But Queen Hippolyta wanted me to do something more since I did injure Diana." Raven explains before taking the cup of tea. "Thank you Alfred."

"Actually I think we are all eager to hear about that trip." Richard says while smirking.

"I'm afraid you will have to wait till the League is done. But I was hoping to do a little round of training before J'onn shows up tonight."

"Themyscira must have changed you. I remember a time when I had to pull ranks on you to get you into the gym." Richard mentions, still smirking as they both remember him ordering her to do it while she was more interested in reading her book; it had been early in their relationship.

"Actually, if the gentlemen will allow it, you can train with me and my girls." Barbara mentions.

"Sounds like a good idea, will give you a chance to meet the other Birds." Bruce says, instantly wiping the smirk off Richards face. Who was really hoping to do see what she had learned.

"Umm, not to be insensitive or anything but…" Raven notes at the wheelchair.

"Oh, don't worry, I have my own regime, but the rest are all able bodied." Barbara replies without offence, being used to having those kinds of questions.

"And the rest are?"

"The Birds of Prey. Barbara's own espionage operation, she goes by the name Oracle." Bruce fills in the blank in Ravens head, the Birds were formed while Richard was a Titan.

"Well this will be interesting, but if you don't mind, I would like something to eat first."

"Gives Dinah some time to get here." Barbara notes.

"Actually, if you just let Raven know where you are heading, she can take you there in a jiffy." Richard mentions, not wanting Barbara to miss out on a trip like that.

"Thank you Richard, but I can't just guess where I emerge, I have to know I'm not coming out into a wall or something else." Raven replies calmly, not letting a hint of her actual annoyance show.

"I'll call Dinah, where we are housed is rather crowded." Barbara mentions before heading over to the computer.

"And I'm sure Alfred has made enough sandwiches for you as well." Bruce mentions.


	27. Birds of Prey

30 minutes later Dinah Lance arrives to pick up Raven and Barbara.

"Hey Babs, ready to go?" Dinah smiles broadly as she appears in the doorway.

"Yup and Raven here is coming with us for this afternoon." Barbara says while motioning to the blue cloaked and hooded woman standing next to her.

"But you know we have training this afternoon." Dinah complains, apparently not seeing Raven as a fighter.

"I do, I make the schedules remember? Anyways she's joining us for that." Barbara replies before pushing herself forwards, wordlessly telling Dinah not to argue. "Thanks for the lunch Bruce it was a pleasure."

"Any time Barbara." Bruce replies. "It was good seeing you again."

"Just don't let it be so long before the next time." Barbara smiles back at him before being pushed out the door and into the car by Dinah with Raven following silently, still with her hood up. Getting into the back seat next to Barbara before Dinah drives them out.

"You can let your hood down kid; it's not cold in here." Dinah says catching a look at Raven in the rear view mirror.

"I prefer it like this." Raven answers shortly.

"New people make you uncomfortable?" Barbara speculates.

"They do, they tend to freak out around me or pry too much." Raven replies.

"No wonder if you keep everything hidden under that thing." Dinah says, meaning Ravens cloak.

"I guess you've never heard of me?" Raven asks.

"Nope." Dinah's replies without a hint of worry makes Raven sigh before pulling down her hood; Dinah seems to stare even more at her. "Shouldn't color your hair like that honey, sends out the wrong signals." Raven quirks an eyebrow at the woman in the mirror.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing, but I know a few good brands you could use if you consider changing."

"The hair and skin is natural, thank you, as natural as it can be." Raven grumbles before pulling her hood up again.

"Don't let her get to you; she's like that with everyone she meets." Barbara whispers to her, Raven grumbles a reply remaining silent most of the drive.

"Ok kiddies, were home." Dinah says happily as she kills the engine in the private garage under the building belonging to Express Delivery, the front for Barbara's operation.

"Which floor?" Raven asks quietly.

"7th, why?" Barbara asks back, Raven smiles slightly in the shadows of her hood before she teleports all three of them to the floor, appearing in the middle of a kitchen. Making Dinah fall on her butt in surprise, a woman in red and metal armor and domino mask spits out whatever she is drinking for the same reason. Soon another blond woman in a dark blue tunic, military cap and a frilled miniskirt comes rushing in followed by another woman in a skintight purple, white and black outfit with a 'window' showing off her belly and wearing a domino mask with pointed ears. The first is aiming two pistols at Raven the other is wielding a metal staff the same height as the user. "Warn me next time you do that!" Barbara grumbles at Raven, who is still smirking under her hood.

"Umm Babs, who's that? And what just happened?" The blond with the pistols ask, not knowing if the silent woman is a threat or not.

"Easy girls, this is Raven, she is going to join us the afternoon. Raven, this is the core of my group, the one in the back with the staff is the Huntress, the one with the guns, which she can lower now, is Lady Blackhawk. The one in red is the Manhunter and you know Black Canary." Barbara points each of them out in turn.

"You're one of those Teen Titan's aren't you?" The red armored one asks.

"I was, until the team disbanded four years ago." The three standing women seem to relax at the confirmation.

"You did that on purpose!" Dinah complains as she gets back on her feet.

"Not really, you could just have stood up during transit." Raven replies calmly. "So what are we doing?"

"Well we will start light warm up, then we take a few sparring matches if you're up for it?" Barbara asks.

"Sure." Ravens replies.

"I thought you were the mystic?" Manhunter asks.

"I am, but having to defend a city for four years made me broaden my skill set."

"Well this will be interesting then." The Manhunter replies lowering her staff.

"And one thing Raven, no powers unless we have had a chance to engage the countermeasures for it." Barbara warns before they head into a large gym, that Raven guesses takes up space on three floors. It's got a large central mat with metal poles standing at the corners, there is the weight lifting area, a few gymnastic props are leaning up against one of the walls. While there are windows, Raven notes they are all one way viewing.

During their warm up, which mostly consist of stretching, Raven manages to whisper to Barbara. "You're not going to tell them about what training I do have?"

"Nope, they can't expect to know everything all the time." Raven nods at the whispered reply.

"So kiddo, what type of fighting do you do?" Huntress asks, Raven hides the annoyance at being called nicknames.

"Learned most of what I can from training tapes Robin left behind, you will be able to tell me the names of them when we are done." Raven replies without revealing the embarrassment she is feeling to the others, for all his neatness, Robin didn't bother naming the moves he used or specify their origins.

"Self taught?" Dinah asks.

"Pretty much."

"Any good?" Huntress continues

"I think I'm decent." Raven plays along with Barbara line of not telling the others anything.

"Well, time to find out if you are." Lady Blackhawk chips in while finishing off her warm up, throwing her cap onto a bench by the side of the mat.

"Ok, since we are at an odd number." Barbara says drawing their attention to her, before she say's out loud: "Computer, add new entry: Raven. Randomize pairings; Raven, Black Canary, Lady Blackhawk, Huntress and Manhunter." A large screen, on the wall where the door to the kitchen is located, flickers into life at the command, coming up with four names.

**Huntress vs. Lady Blackhawk**

**Black Canary vs. Manhunter**

"Oh well, guess you'll sit out for now kid." Dinah says while walking into the ring towards the waiting Manhunter. The two others are already getting at it.

"Is she always like that?" Raven asks Barbara motioning at Dinah.

"What do you meant?"

"Patronizing."

"She is, until they prove something to her. She pulled the same on Batman, she stopped after he sparred with her. Speaking of men with little respect for privacy." Barbara nods to a surveillance camera in the corner of the room turning to face them.

"I guess it's not supposed to do that?" Raven asks flatly.

"Nope, give me a second." Barbara rolls over to the screen that generates the parings before tapping a few keys. "Yup it's being controlled from the Cave. Hmm, I bet its Nightwing, with Robin in school and Batman having a meeting right about now."

"I could go and call him a pervert for peeking." Raven mentions finding it oddly schoolboy like of Nightwing to do this sort of thing.

"Already have." Barbara replies while typing a message. "Guess he's just mad because he's not getting to see what you learned on your little overseas voyage."

"And I thought he was the most mature of them." Raven sighs.

"Well now he's only watching a black screen." Barbara turns around smiling, after having killed the feed. "Anyways I have to change before I begin." She says before heading out the door.

Raven looks on in interest at the others for a few moments, they are all veterans of their styles of fighting but seem to have gotten too used to their own routines, it's like they can predict their opponent's moves. After watching for a while, she walks over to the weights to test out something that had been bugging her since she shook hands with Barbara. Finding the hand weight in the size she usually ended with while living in the Tower, 15kg, she tries lifting it finding it weights almost nothing to her. Putting it down calmly, she picks up the largest of the weights, 45kg; she lifts it, finding it only slightly heavier than the other one. Insider her head, her self-esteem seem to inflate itself into a huge shape before being punctured by her timid side. She realizes she can't fight these women now, without knowing her own limit when she could accidentally cripple one of them. After quickly walking out of the room she knocks on the door to a shower room she can hear Barbara inside of.

"Oracle, any chance I can borrow a phone or something, there's something I need to ask Wonder Woman."

"Umm, sure. Hold on a moment." Raven can hear the red head moving around inside before the door is unlocked. "Anything wrong?" Barbara has changed into a white t-shirt and tight black training shorts.

"I a little complicated, but I need to ask her something about my stay at her island before I accidentally injure someone." Raven tries to remain vague about it, even distancing herself from her new home would be for the best until it was revealed.

"Ok, follow me." Raven follows her to an elevator going up a floor, emerging into a room that reminds Raven of the main computer room of the tower, from floor to ceiling is virtually covered in wires and computer banks. "Please don't touch anything while I patch you up." Barbara begins typing away at a long line of commands on the screen before handing Raven a headset, which she puts on after pulling her hood down. "Wonder Woman, this is Oracle, I've got Raven here who has a question for you." Barbara nods at Raven, giving her the go ahead sign.

"Diana?"

"_Hello sister, good to hear from you."_ Diana's voice sounds from the other end.

"You too, umm, Diana, what exactly has the godswater done to me? I need to know before I cripple someone by accident." Raven notes both hers and Diana's voices are being written down on one of the screens and that Barbara is staring at her.

"_Ah you noticed, well considering you only received about 1/3 of the amount we need to give to turn an outsider into an Amazon and your physical shape, I'd say you should be able to lift about 120 kg in one hand easily. Also you should become more resilient to blunt impacts, but don't worry you will get used to the changes soon enough now that you know it's there. I guess with all that went on, we forgot about it."_

"Ok, thank you sister. I just didn't want to find out my upper level by sending someone's head flying off their shoulders."

"_Don't mention it, good to hear from you sister."_

"You too sister." Raven replies while the line does dead. Raven turns to face the red head with the crossed arms.

"I suspect she did more than have you over for two weeks of training." Raven sighs at the statement before pulling off one of her sleeves, revealing the silver bracelet hidden there. "Is that...?" Barbara trails off before being cut off.

"It is. While I was there, Ares tried to recruit me as his own personal champion, by attempting to drive me mad with rage. He did that by forcing me to believe I was living as one of the Amazons in the days where they were enslaved by Heracles, and I did believe it. I ended up engaging Ares in combat in that state believing he was Heracles, Diana was able to make me come to my senses before I lost everything. After that Queen Hippolyta saw fit to invite me in." Raven looks down at the ground and turns away as she pulls up her sleeve again, not particularly happy to have those memories dug up again.

"So when you say you experienced what they went through, back then, you…" Barbara is cut off again.

"I have memories of a life that never happened Barbara, I can recall faces that have been dead for thousands of years, I can hear screams of violated women long since faded, including my own." Raven sighs.

"I'm sorry." Barbara says quietly, the two are quiet for a moment.

"Can I ask you to keep this secret for the time being? Diana and I want to keep this between her and me till the League has decided, we fear that if I come forward and acknowledge I have a home on Themyscira, that some of the others will think of it as a trick on my part or just bend out of respect to Diana." Barbara nods at the request, she was well aware of the League's skepticism of the empath.

"I will, but Bruce will ask questions when he finds out." She says. "If he hasn't already."

"I know, and I will give him the answers he seeks if I am able to. I don't know if you know this. But, I came to Gotham to make myself a home and a new life here, being a hero without a public address. I wanted to prove myself to him so I didn't have to fight him."

"And Themyscira?"

"I never expected them to do what they did, I actually thought the opposite when I first met Queen Hippolyta, but I am deeply grateful for it. And since coming back I have noticed the difference between here and there. There I was respected even cheered at; here a lot of people see me as a monster. Believe me, having lived for three years in a city that practically hated me, being accepted as myself means a lot to me."

"Richard told me about what happened over there and you have my sympathy. But I can't say how Bruce will react when he finds out." Barbara is thinking that he might go as far as dropping his extending hand to Raven, but it was always hard predicting him.

"I will have to wait and see." Raven sighs, not wanting to betray or hurt the only other Leaguer she felt right around. Barbara decides to change the subject after another moment of silence.

"Since you are an Amazon, if only running on a 1/3 of their juice, do you want to see if you can humble the others?" She asks sounding cheerful.

"You realize I could accidentally injure them severely?" Raven cautions. "I'm still not adjusted to this increase after all."

"And you can patch them back up, Dinah regularly asks Diana for sparring matches but gets declined every time because she can't actually feel Dinah's blows. I would think of you as a good stand in for her."

"You know I'm a lot weaker than her, as I am now. And that I did lose the fight against Diana I had on Themyscira, while I was at my full."

"Well it will give them a fighting chance, and according to Bruce, you're no pushover when it comes to martial arts either."

"You're not going to stop till I agree, are you?" Raven asks with a bit of humor entering her voice.

"Nope, you can always freak them out afterwards, how does that sound?" The red head asks.

"Potentially getting my ass handed to me, or me wading over your team and then spook them, you're becoming hard to resist." Raven smirks at her.

"Themyscira has gotten to you I see." Barbara smiles back at her, before motioning for them to get back to the others, who are probably wondering where they had gone to.

"There you are, thought you had chickened out on us." Dinah remarks at the pair coming through the door. Barbara claps her hands to get the attention of them all as she halts; Raven stands silently behind her with her hood back up.

"OK team, small change of plans. Raven will not be sparring with one of you." Raven notes Barbara holding for dramatics', getting confused looks from three of them; Dinah just lets on a knowing smile before Barbara drops the bomb. "She will be sparring against all of you." Dinah's smirk is wiped off immediately getting replaced with a look of disbelief.

"Kid, are you serious?" Huntress asks.

"I am quite serious, and Barbara wouldn't let me say no anyways." Raven replies calmly.

"Your funeral I guess." Manhunter shrugs.

"Yeah, any next of kin we need to notify?" Blackhawk quips, Barbara rolls her eyes.

"There is an old proverb saying you shouldn't sell the skin of a bear you haven't shot yet. And look at this as team training for you." Barbara cuts in as Raven walks in a normal pace onto the mat, standing silently at the far end of it from the others.

"Ready when you girls are." She says calmly, appearing completely unbothered by the odds. The four nod at each other before stepping onto the mat. Barbara raises the barrier around it.

The four fall into their ready stances, while Raven stands motionless a moment before falling into one as well. The four inch closer, two by two, covering for each other's, movements coming halfway across the mat before the first word is spoken by Dinah.

"GO!" They all rush towards the last few meters, Raven kicks high, letting her right shin collide with the raised left arm of Huntress sending her running sideways, as her balance is thrown. The others bear Raven to the ground, Manhunter grabbing hold of her left arm, Blackhawk the other and Dinah aiming a kick to her stomach.

"Give up kid, we gotcha!" Blackhawk says while putting all her weight down on Ravens outstretched arm while sitting on her knees, Manhunter holding the other outstretched as well by putting her boots into Ravens side, effectively a treat to pull the arm from its socket.

"You haven't won yet." Raven says calmly, before quickly forcing her right arm over her head.

The sudden movement has the tensing Blackhawk dragged over the mat, which makes her ease off as her knees begin to hurt. Using the momentary confusion, Raven quickly pulls her left arm to her chest, making Manhunter give a surprised yelp as she is pulled along, before being shaken off into Blackhawk. Jumping to her feet, Raven nearly catches a boot to her face as Dinah attacks again, instead she manages to dodge the attack before sensing someone coming up from behind her, she jumps into the air, doing a backwards somersault, letting her powers deal with her cape before turning to face Dinah and the crouching Huntress that had tried to sneak up on her while the others surround her as Manhunter extends her staff.

"Stronger than you look." Huntress notes.

"At least you have me surrounded." Raven continues while keeping an eye on Dinah, obviously the field leader for any kind of indication of when the attack was coming and from who. The gesture isn't there in any physical sense, but Raven sees the attack coming from behind as Huntress emotions suddenly shift, instantly she dives forwards into a roll, feeling someone rolling with her. But as she tries to get up after passing both Huntress and Dinah, she finds Manhunter tangled up in her cape, leaving her momentarily pinned and bent over to see the others charge in. Taking a quick decision she yanks her cape free, flipping Manhunter over, still with the cape in hand she turns around covering her assailants with the blue fabric, getting Dinah and Huntress to duck back instinctively while Lady Blackhawk suddenly find herself carried to the ground by the arm that lands over her shoulders. Raven again jumps up quickly after grabbing Manhunter's staff and drops into a ready stance, leaning forwards on her left leg with the staff lying over her shoulders while she holds onto it with her right hand, taunting them forwards with the other.

"That would be for me." Huntress says before she extends her own collapsible staff and bounds into action, meeting Raven in a furious exchange of blows and parries. While Huntress is quick to tag herself as the better actual fighter, she notes that the attacks that slip through Raven's guard just don't seem to affect her much. And more worrying is that Raven seems to be able to keep track of the others as they try to barge into the match only to get stymied by herself and her opponent that either get in their way or hit them with their staffs, on purpose and by accident.

"Screw this. Huntress!" Dinah shouts in agitation after seeing Blackhawk roll clear of the two. Huntress knows what this means and dodges aside from another swing before Dinah lets loose her fearsome Canary Cry, a sonic scream that blows Raven off her feet and into the barrier behind her, leaving her to cover her ears as her focus is shattered with the attack. A bell is rung a few seconds after that by Barbara as Raven doesn't get up. At the sound Dinah stops, leaving Raven to cradle hear head while the ringing in her ears persists for a few moments, so despite the team's victory, she doesn't see the scowl they put on.

"That…didn't go as expected." Huntress pants as the first to say something.

"And she's the mystic…dang, did we fall off the wagon or…" Blackhawk adds.

"It's her." Barbara injects as she lowers the barrier as Raven gets up and shakes her head. "Raven, can you hear me?" She calls.

"Barely." Raven says loudly revealing how little she can actually hear at the moment. "Don't worry, I can heal this, just need a moment."

"Ok…" Dinah sighs as she gets one of those damning stares from Barbara that would have been the beginning of an argument but would end in Barbara being right, while Raven almost falls over as she tries to get up, prompting Dinah to walk over and get Raven to lean on her before leading her over to a bench for her to sit on. "I just want to say I wasn't full out there." She says to Barbara as Raven shuts her eyes to focus.

"You know it's hard to tell when you are on the other end of that Dinah." Barbara replies.

"No, its ok, you couldn't know." Raven says while her ears glow blue. "My hearing is very acute compared to normal humans, it's only reasonable that a sonic attack would hurt me more."

"How acute?" Barbara asks.

"Never had it measured…but I think someone forgot to close your fridge." The birds look at each other in puzzlement at this.

"That may have been me." Manhunter suggests. "We have mentioned the door is loose." She notes to Barbara.

"Thanks to Dinah." Huntress adds getting a low hiss out of Canary as Manhunter leaves the room.

"Anyways, did we get the wrong info…or did we just tap out against a mystic that didn't do mystic on us?" Blackhawk asks while looking at Oracle.

"Option two it seems." Huntress replies as she collapses her staff and returns it to her belt. "But you're a tougher cookie than I thought." She notes to Raven.

"Thanks." Raven replies as it dawns on her that the women actually thought they had thrown the towel in the ring by involving the Canary Cry. "Mind if I ask; Dinah, you're the only meta?"

"Currently, but it's just the Cry and I tend not to use it." Raven nods at this in understanding. "So why didn't the mystic do mystic? I guess you know we are pro's at what we do?"

"Like you I am trying not to rely too much on something that has failed me before, and I do like testing myself. But while I mean not to offend, I've almost just gotten back from two weeks of learning from other professionals that I can guarantee has more experience than you do, since they tended to be thousands of years old." This has the group raise their eyebrows.

"She spent two weeks on Paradise Island." Barbara adds offhandedly as she rolls over to her computer while Manhunter returns.

"Fridge was open all right." The red dressed woman says, getting a nod from Barbara. "And what's this, is she suddenly an Amazon?"

"Well no, but having lived and trained with some seems to have left something of an impression." Raven replies.

"You knew that before you got in the ring with us." Huntress notes as she could tell Raven was holding back during their duel.

"That's why I was out; I needed to know from Wonder Woman how great the effect was before I did something I didn't mean to." Raven explains.

"So…are we talking about an effective training regime or some kind of super steroid?" Blackhawk asks.

"There was something in the water they gave me, or rather, it was something someone decided I should have. We still aren't sure how long it will last or if there are side effects." Unseen to the others Barbara smirks a little, since unlike her operatives, she has read about the Godswater.

"Well, lucky you, for as long as it lasts." Manhunter smiles.

"Lucky us, you're skilled with a staff." Huntress adds. "And I suppose if you weren't doing us physically, we'd be in deep trouble?"

"Technically I'm more into psionics than I am actual magic, my powers are rooted in magic but the effects aren't really any different."

"Like what?" Manhunter asks as she sits down next to Raven.

"Telekinesis and empathy, which most tend to mistake for telepathy."

"Babs?" Dinah asks for an explanation.

"She can feel what you feel at any given time, according to Nightwing it is constantly turned on and four years ago he suspected it covered much Jump City, also he's suspected that she can dictate the emotions of others such as taking away their feelings of pain, which induces a state of rapid healing." Barbara rattles off, letting her photographic memory do its thing while Raven sends her an odd look. "While impressive, the firewalls in Titans Tower weren't unbreachable."

"Well, guess that's why you just read word for word the note I know he made on me." Raven notes, wondering how much Barbara had been looking into her.

"Yeah I did…but I am not looking at it." Barbara replies as she turns in her seat to look at Raven who looks back before they seem to share a revelation. "You do have a good memory."

"It's not completely photographic, but its close." Raven replies.

"Mine is." Barbara replies.

"Question, if you're psychic, couldn't you just have folded your arms and dropped us if you wanted to?" Blackhawk asks.

"I could yes, but because of what I am, I tend not to use that…it can have some very nasty side effects and that a person can end up bedridden for weeks if I am not careful."

"So it's not just like the Martian?" Blackhawk continues.

"In a way he speaks to a specific part of the mind. I have to go by a longer way around it and make the mind shut down by overloading it. Most who see it can't tell the difference as it only takes a second or more."

"Ok, so let me get this right you can feel everything within miles from where you are, can't turn it off and you can hear much better than any of us. So my Cry was really a low blow?" Dinah asks.

"I guess it's quite effective against anyone with enhanced hearing or rely on their focus. But otherwise, yes it is like that." Raven replies as Barbara has the feeling Dinah is about to say something stupid.

"Could we call it even, if you can give me an impression of that?" Only Raven hears the sigh from Barbara.

"I'd rather not, suddenly having what I have isn't something you are instantly able to handle…but I can settle with a rematch?"

"No, witchy powers, just physical?" Dinah asks as she detects something odd.

"Just physical." Raven replies getting a nod.

"Fair enough." Dinah continues as Raven gets up and leaves her boots behind before the two get into the cage again.

"Am I the only one thinking there's something fishy about this?" Manhunter whispers to the two others as Raven covers herself with her cloak while the barrier is raised while Oracle turns around to watch as well.

"Nothing fishy about it." Raven replies as Dinah gets into a ready stance, not sure what to expect this time as Raven remains motionless.

"Well let's see then." Dinah announces as she jumps into action, meaning to plant her boot in Raven's side, she barely sees the movement in the folds of Ravens cloak before she feels the impact of the hand in her midsection sending her onto her back where she started. "Jeez." Dinah growls as she gets her feet under her before bouncing back up, while Raven just stands there. "Fast, strong too."

"People say that a lot." Raven replies.

"Which isn't worth anything against skill." Dinah continues before again jumping into action, this time getting Raven to duck, weave and parry her way around the many blows sent at her.

"Only too true…till a point I might add." Raven says before she ends Dinah's tirade of blows with one of her own that smashes through Dinah's hasty block and sends the blond flying back.

"Hey I thought it was without hocus pocus?" Blackhawk asks loudly from the outside as Ravens red right arm is now left visible after the blow.

"It isn't hocus pocus, I'm a half breed. Part human, half demon." Raven replies as Dinah gets back on her feet as it hits the others.

"Half what?" Dinah asks before Raven moves at a speed that takes her aback as she is suddenly standing right in front of her.

"Demon." Raven replies as her four red eyes shine brightly from within her hood, making Dinah's eye go wide before she's being pushed into the barrier behind her.

"Gak!" Dinah quacks as she finds Raven holding her chest in place with her right hand and her left hands fingers squeezing lightly, but no less dangerously, against her windpipe. Dinah is a very skilled tactician and she quickly works out her options; her Cry would be strangled at the slightest peep and with the strength and speed in the moves Raven had made use of, she wasn't sure she could move quick enough to actually get out of this predicament, except by taking a chance.

Quickly she brings her knuckles to bear into Ravens left arm and moves them quickly in opposite directions, causing the left hand to open outside of Ravens control. Dinah moves quickly and squeezes past the right hand on her chest before barreling Raven to the ground and lands a solid right hook on her opponent.

Raven however snaps her head back just as quickly as it was turned before displaying an impressive display of strength and slams the butts of her fists into the mat, sending her back onto her feet with Dinah attached to her midsection.

"Oh sh…." Dinah manages before Raven grabs her leotard and lifts her over her head before slamming her into the ground, knocking the air out of her. "Oww…." She heaves as she has the air for it before the bell is sounded.

"Ok…I am happy you didn't do that to the rest of us." Huntress says as Dinah notes that Raven's hood had fallen back.

"I don't like using it really" Raven replies. "but it has it uses from time to time."

"Ever measure how strong you are like that?" Manhunter asks.

"Well, I went head to head with Wonder Woman for around 10 minutes like this, so I hope this isn't going to lead to ill feelings between us." Raven replies before turning to Dinah. "You ok."

"Peachy…just gimme a moment." Dinah replies with a slightly wheezing voice. "Hit lower next time, will you?" She asks getting Raven to kneel down next to her before placing a blue-glowing hand on her. "Oh." Dinah notes at the subsiding pain.

"Sorry, pressed ribs, you should be ok now?" Raven asks getting Dinah to take a deep breath.

"Yeah." She replies as she confirms she feels like nothing had been damaged, Raven nods and gets up, offering her hand to pull Dinah up as well. "So this isn't hocus pocus?" She asks and motions at her own face.

"Unfortunately not, had a nasty run-in with a dragon that cast a transformation spell on me around a year ago. Because of what I am, I went around half a year looking like this before I found a way to turn back. But the form is something I guess I've always had, but other things just prevented it from ever fully manifesting."

"I guess this would be something in case your father had succeeded?" Barbara asks getting another of those questioning looks from her operatives. "Five years ago Ravens father came to Earth and blew it up, we don't remember it because we were turned to stone before he was beaten by her and the Teen Titans."

"I suspect that is the case, yes." Raven replies to the question, having thought herself what would have happened to her when Trigon eventually returned for her. She knew well enough that in his own way he cared for her, as long as she followed his lead, she had suspected he would have forced her to his side and take up her current form as the proud and loyal Daughter of Trigon. "So perhaps now you understand why I like how I normally look?" She smirks at Dinah.

"Totally…the eye thing isn't confusing?"

"Not really. So what's up now?" Raven asks as she changes back.

"Now I want a shot." Manhunter says as she folds her staff out again. "But no shapeshifting or hocus pocus."

"Fair enough." Raven smirks before she summons one of the staffs hanging in their holsters on the wall.

12


	28. How they came to know

_The Batcave:_

"Hey Rae, had fun?" Richard asks as he sees her appearing in the cave while he is currently repairing Tim's bike.

"Yeah, except I found out I couldn't go all out on any of them." Raven replies, having agreed with the Birds that they kept her enhanced strength quiet for now from most of the others, but she had to concede that skill wise, she had some practice to do if she wanted to get near their level.

"Well they are good." Richard replies while getting up.

"While that is true, that wasn't why." Raven says while coming to a decision, maybe it would deter Richard from wanting a go until she had gotten used to it.

"Oh, what was it then?"

"This." Raven says while grabbing hold of one of the two black bikes and lifts it clear over her head with little effort. "If I hit them the wrong way, I could have crippled them so we had to keep it light." Richard stands slack jawed as she puts it down again.

"Amazon training?" He manages.

"Yeah, I didn't notice it over there and I haven't been in a physical fight since I came back."

"Can I get signed up for that program?" He asks.

"I'm afraid not." Raven says with a flat tone, making Richard suspicious.

"You're hiding something Rae, what happened over there?" He asks.

"I can't tell you, not now, but I promise I will when the League is done." Raven says with an apologetic tone, Richard sighs.

"Right. But I know something happened over there. Bruce knows what it is, but won't tell me either, and it's getting annoying." Again that little voice in Raven's head urges her to tell him, it wasn't bad news after all, but this time she shuts it down.

"I'm sorry, but it's not to deliberately annoy you." Richard sighs again in a defeated gesture, resigning himself again to being left in the dark.

"Ok, just promise you won't wait till the last second."

"I promise." They are silent for a moment, while Richard looks at Tim's bike with disinterest, Raven looks at him, trying to guess what is going through his head. Deciding to try and make him feel better she asks; "Do you still run?" He looks up slightly surprised at the question.

"Sure I do, 10km every third day if time allows. Why do you ask?" He answers.

"We started each morning on Themyscira with a lap around the island. Haven't had a chance to do it since I got back."

"Hmm, while I have no idea about the distance you did, I can say I can't provide the heat, sunrise or a sandy beach. I can offer forests, hills and a stretch of beach along the path I usually take. Do you want me to make a map for you?" He asks.

"Won't be needed, because you are coming with me." She smirks back at him; he stares at her waiting for her to say it was a joke on her part, back in Jump she always wanted to do it alone. "I just need to hang my cloak somewhere; dragging it through a wood won't do it many favors."

"Um, I'm sure you can hang it the wardrobe." He replies.

"Goodie." Raven walks into the small cave to find a vacant clothespin, coming back out without her cloak, which, to Richard, looks odd, knowing Raven never went anywhere without her prized cloak. Raven notices him staring "What?"

"You sure you don't want a change into something else?" Raven looks down at herself, as if he had just said she was standing naked.

"What's wrong with this?" She asks and looks down at her leotard.

"Uhh… well it's not really running clothes and I'm not going in costume." He decided not to mention that some people might think something weird and inappropriate if they encountered a woman in a skintight outfit like hers, Richard had never asked what her leotard was made of but to people here on this planet it looked like a kind of dulled latex.

"Dick, it's not like I have much choice here, besides this has worked for me since I came to Earth." She replies, which makes Richard remember something, but he is not sure if she will start arguing if he says it right now.

"Well I will need a change first, but I know we left some spare clothes in the guestroom." He says while looking down at his black canvas pants and oil stained white t-shirt. "Have you even seen it yet?" He asks.

"Umm no I haven't." Raven replies as she remembers Alfred mentioning it was available, it had just become more natural to her to sleep in the cave.

"Well follow me then." He says before heading out of the cave and up the stairs with Raven following him. They exit out into the study before making their way into the main hall to head up the stairs, where the rooms are housed, a part of the building Raven hadn't actually seen yet.

"You got back in a hurry." Bruce says suddenly, Richard halts halfway up the stairs as if he had been a rabbit caught in the headlights, looking up he finds Bruce standing at the head of the stairs; dressed in a black jacket and pants with a white shirt underneath with a red tie, normally reserved for his working hours. "Where's your cloak?" He notes at Raven.

"In the cave, I asked Richard out for a run." Raven replies moving up to the same step Richard is standing on.

"Oh? Training with Barbara was not enough?" He asks, not indicating anything.

"Well they had Zatanna coming over." Raven mentions, which was something Barbara had mentioned when she was also thinking about getting back. "And their computer did give me the long straw initially, which someone should know by now?" She looks over at Richard, remembering the camera from earlier.

"What?" He asks with a questioning look on his face.

"The surveillance camera in her gym?" Raven forgoes the 'duh' at the end of that.

"What? No! I haven't been in her cameras." Richard holds his arms up defensively; Bruce lets out a small chuckle, which makes Raven turn her head towards him.

"Barbara thought you had a meeting today?" She asks, having realized who it really was.

"I let one of my assistants fill in for me, it was only a sales promotion and I do have an image to keep up."

"Playboy?" He nods with a small smirk, its true the rest of the business world often sees Bruce Wayne as irresponsible and eccentric, but with a small outfit change he is regarded as one of the foremost intellects within certain fields and one of the most dangerous men on the planet. "And now the one who peeks at women in a training hall."

"Bruce that's just wrong." Richard mentions, slightly offended that he would do that to Barbara and the Birds.

"I was just curious to what you may have picked up so far." Bruce continues unaffected. "But since Barbara shut me out, can I join you? It's been a while since we did a run together." The last part is directed at Richard.

"Well I'm inclined to say no, but then we would 'coincidentally' run into you out there. So very well." Richard sighs.

"Good, we can take Tim with us; he should be home right about…now." Behind the two they can hear the front door open before a loud greeting is shouted.

"I'm home!" Tim shouts before seeing the three people he was aiming to alert standing on the stairs. Bruce had seen through the window Tim coming out of the car which Alfred was driving.

"Good, now you can join the rest of us for a run." Bruce says with a smirk, catching the boy off guard.

"What? But I just got home!" Tim looks like someone who had other plans, which would be quite accurate.

"Tim." Bruce says quietly, Richard knew it had just turned into an order, Tim sighs before heading towards the stairs as well. Bruce turns around and walks away from the top after Richard points at Raven as they continue up.

"Raven there's something I would want you to see now that you're up here." Bruce says as Richard and Tim heads down a corridor to their rooms, while Bruce heads down another halting at a door halfway down it. Raven walks over to him to see what it is.

Bruce opens the door he is standing next to letting Raven look inside, finding a large room that makes the four posted bed in it look small. Along the walls to the right is lined by closest, save for a single closed door, to the left is a pair of low drawers. The wall opposite from the door and the far right one, where the beds head is located at, is covered to about halfway up in dark wooden panels; the remaining is painted a deep blue, the wall opposite the door is broken by a large pair of windows with an almost transparent white curtain covering them.

"Used to be my mother's study." Bruce says with a small note of sentimentally. "After the manor burned down, I had what was left of her things moved to a safer place and made this into a guest room. It's yours for as long as you stay here."

"Wow, I'm sorry I stayed in the cave this morning." She says as she enters the room.

"Take a look in the closet's." Bruce says from the doorway, Raven walks over to one of the one near him and opens it, finding it full of dark clothes, if it wasn't black, it was blue or purple, all in her size by the looks of it. "Alfred has a good eye for clothe sizes and Richard insisted on keeping it dark. There should be a training set in there as well, but only Alfred would know where." He says before leaving the woman alone and overwhelmed.

"Where's Raven, I thought you said this was her idea?" Tim asks at Richard who is warming up in front of the mansion. Tim is wearing his running set, which consists of a green sweat shirt and grey pants along with a pair of worn running shoes, Alfred had tried several times to persuade Tim to get a new pair but he liked those he had. Richard is wearing a black nylon set with blue patches on the shoulders and reflexes running up the sides of his arms and legs, with a black pair of shoes.

"I left her to find the training set in her room." Bruce says as he jogs down the stairs, in white shoes, black pants and a grey hoodie.

"Found a way to get her out of the cave at least." Richard adds.

"You know; you could just add her to you list of defenses in there." Tim quips, dreaming up a scenario of some poor smock finding his way into the cave only to get ambushed by Raven.

"Already put her under the same header as the rest of us." Bruce replies as he begins to warm up.

"By the way Bruce, how much do you know about Amazon training?" Richard asks.

"A fair bit I suspect according to what I have from Diana. Why?"

"I'm just curious if they all are super powered, compared to the rest of us that is?" Richard asks.

"They are, but I am not sure if that is natural to them through creation, blessings of their gods or their own training, but Diana has mentioned they have ways to empower outsiders up to their own levels." Richard nods at the answer and lets Bruce continue. "Has Raven taken some effect from it?" Bruce asks after a moment.

"She, umm, lifted your bike clear over her head. With her hands and she was still grey skinned while doing it." Richard explains, getting Tim to stare at his as if he had grown an extra head, Bruce doesn't look surprised.

"Must be an effective training program." Richard sighs at Bruce's comment, knowing an answer like that meant he knew more or had a decent theory, and was not about to share it before he could confirm it.

"I should be slightly worried that someone in this house, besides me, can guess my size in clothes almost perfectly." Raven announces her presence, jogging down the stairs in white shoes and a completely black nylon set. Inwardly she was happy to find the elastic ends of the sleeves to cover her bracelets, or she would have worn her sleeves and made up an excuse. And silently she was very happy that she had almost collided with Alfred as she was leaving her room, since he fully intended to wash the leotard.

"Told you, he was good." Bruce replies while Raven does a light warm up.

The small group, with Richard in the lead, begins jogging around the back of the manor and through the gardens and over to a hedge with a gate in it, leading them into the forest. Running up and down the forest paths, none of them waste their breaths on talk, each focused on keeping their pace, Tim having to put a little extra effort into keeping up with the longer legs of the others. They go on for around 20 minutes without meeting anyone, arriving into a wide clearing with large trees surrounding them. In the center is an ancient oak standing apart from the rest of the forest with half of its roots sticking out of the ground, the empty area around it makes the tree seem bigger than the surrounding forest. Bruce calls a halt here as Tim seems have fallen behind a bit.

"Good place for a bit of practice." Bruce mentions as Tim catches up with them. "What do you say Richard?"

"It's been ages since we did anything like that."

"Tim, Raven; form a line with Richard." They both move up alongside Richard, Tim breathing a little heavily. "Mimic my movements." Bruce says before slowly doing a series of kicks and punches, when he stops the others begin doing the same series.

After they finish, Bruce does another series, a little faster adding a few more hits and kicks. They repeat this ten times, with the last two Bruce adds a backwards flip into the combo. To the untrained eye they all copy his moves without flaws, but Bruce is not untrained.

"Richard, you're putting too much weight on your right foot. Tim, you're wasting too much energy in your hits, the force they need is provided by your normal movements. Raven you are making them same mistake as Richard; also you need to relax a bit more." Bruce has them try a few stances where he guides them to how he thinks it should look, before having them all repeat the last two series again. "Good, much better."

"Say Rae, why don't you show us some of the things you've learned while away?" Richard asks before Bruce can issue new instructions.

"Yeah, that would be neat." Tim adds.

"We are kinda short on the things we used most of the time over there." Raven replies, hoping to shoot down the boy's enthusiasm and betting they meant with weapons.

"You could settle with showing us what the training has done for you, since you already have lifted my bike." Bruce adds his opinion to that of his adoptive son and ward with a smirk. "I guess you already showed Barbara and the others?"

"Diana said I should be able to lift 120kg one handed without strain, and it's true." Raven admits knowing she was cornered now.

"Rae, punch the tree as hard as you can." Richard says with a commanding tone in his voice and a following smirk Raven. She walks over to the tree and knocks a few places. "No cheating."

"I'm making sure I'm not hitting a hallow point." Raven replies dryly, before letting Richard come and inspect it himself. Giving her the all go and stepping back, Raven takes a few seconds to clear her head readying a strike she learned from the True Master, one the old woman had demonstrated by shattering a solid rock twice her size. Raven knows the tree won't act like the rock and shatter into a thousand pieces, a rock is a solid shape, a tree is made up of thousands of fibers, which makes it better than stone to absorb a punch when it comes from the sides. Finding her center, Raven strikes and punches a hole a few centimeters deep into the tree itself with her right fist. She holds the pose a few seconds, Richard and a Tim are about to say something before a loud crack is heard on the other side. The two run over to the other side as Raven retracts her hand from the tree, Bruce doesn't move.

"Good punch." He comments before the others are heard.

"Jeez Rae what did you do?!" Richard shouts. Raven and Bruce walk over to the other side, seeing what they expected, Richard standing with a disbelieving look, and Tim studying the yellowish pieces of wood sticking out of the trunk through the bark that makes it look like something exploded inside the tree.

"I suspect it is something Chu-Hui taught her." Bruce replies as he sees the damage. "If done correctly and with enough force that punch could have brought the tree down, if it wasn't so gnarly."

"She shattered a rock about twice her own size when she showed it to me." Raven adds.

"Hey Bruce is this what I think it is?" Tim asks as he points to a point on the trunk, the others move closer to get a good look at what he's found. About a meter to the left of the new opening is an almost overgrown heart carved into the trunk with names written inside it one placed over the other.

'Thomas + Martha'

Bruce sighs before confirming what they are suspecting. "It's from my parents. They must have come here before I was born." He says with a heavy note of sentimentality. "I never knew they came out here." Raven, behind the others backs, closes her eyes and places her right hand on the wound she caused before letting her telekinesis gently push the damaged parts back into place, leaving only a few cracks in the bark as evidence of the damage and in hopes that the tree would live through it.

"Raven, what is that?" Bruce says suddenly, having turned around at the soft creaking of the wood being reset. The two others turn around and look as well; Raven opens her eyes calmly before lowering her hand.

"I just pushed the wood back in its setting, so the tree may survive." She says calmly.

"I don't think he was talking about that." Richard says while pointing at her right hand. Raven looks down at it, noticing that the sleeve has been pulled up slightly, exposing parts of her bracelet. Panic makes her quickly pull the down the sleeve to cover it, her logic knows it is a futile gesture, her mouth doesn't agree.

"Uh, nothing…" She says sheepishly while pulling her hands onto her back.

"Raven, what are you wearing?" Bruce asks, his mind sensing the last revelation to a mystery.

"Yeah, Rae, you never wore jewelry besides the stones on your uniform. And I'm sure there wasn't any in your room." Richard adds, and he would know, he stocked it.

"_Not helping Richard."_ She sends to him in an annoyed tone.

"Raven, give me your hand." Bruce says calmly extending his own to her, Raven sighs; she could run and have them follow her for something they are going to find out eventually, so she extends her right to him. She notes his large palm is warm as he gently uses his left to roll up the sleeve. She looks up as his face as he sees the bracelet, she fears he may turn angry for her to hide this from him, but he doesn't display anything in his face, only her emphatic abilities show her that he is genuinely surprised. "She made you one, didn't she?" He asks as he moves aside for the others to see.

"Is that…?" Richard asks while Tim stares, not really believing what his mind was imagining.

"It is, and yes she did." Raven replies flatly, desperate to keep any more stray emotions from surfacing.

"Rae, you…you're and Amazon?" Richard continues in disbelief.

"I am, but I won't talk about it here."

"Take us back to the mansion." Bruce commands, Raven doesn't reply as her shadow engulfs them all.

_Arkham Asylum:_

"Hawkgirl? You can see him now." The orderly says while holding the door open to the room beyond. Before closing the door behind her, she mentions: "Don't move too fast, he tends to freak out if that happens. And call him by his last name." Shayera nods that she understands, before being left alone with the man in the straightjacket.

"Mr. Wilson?" She asks as she sits down slowly, noticing his one eye dart around nervously before settling on her.

"Y-yes?"

"Do you know who I am?" She asks, deciding it was best to see how much she could expect out of this meeting.

"Hawkgirl." She nods at his reply. "What do you want?"

"Wilson, I would like to talk about Raven, if that's ok with you?" He stares at her for a moment, before answering

"She saved me."

"Saved you?" She asks.

"Saved me from Slade." Shayera gives him a questioning look; she had read that Slade is his first name and his only name while he was active in Jump City.

"But, isn't Slade your name?"

"No! NO! I'm not him! I'm not him! Raven killed him!" He almost shouts with panic entering his voice. "She saved me from him, saved my family from what he would have done to them." He begins rocking back and forth on his chair mumbling praising words of Raven and that he was not Slade. Shayera is lost, this is the man she hoped could get something on Raven from him, and he is singing her praise. She leaves the cell shortly afterwards, remembering there was one other she could see.

_Wayne Manor:_

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, the assembled residents of Wayne Manor have gathered in the study. The fireplace was lit which Alfred had done as soon as they mentioned they would go there. Richard and Tim are squatting in the couch, Bruce sits across from them near the fire and Raven has taken the last one.

"So." Bruce says, motioning for Raven to begin. He is wearing a more casual black suit now suit and Raven is back in her uniform, hiding the bracelets beneath the sleeves.

"Well I better tell you the whole story. When Diana and I got to Themyscira, we were greeted by an Amazon called Artemis and four others I was to train with. Artemis is the second best warrior they have, their magician's apprentice Philipus, Io their blacksmith, Anitope the best archer and Penelope the instructor in unarmed combat. I was under orders from the start that my powers were banned as was my usual attire. Unknown to anyone; Magala, the royal magician and Philipus' teacher, had received a portent and had my water replaced with what they call godswater, which is what they give their aspirants. Artemis was our drill sergeant, I befriended the others and they told me to keep it secret when they found out about it. On the second night Artemis had the idea that running through the jungle at night was good sport, while the rest of us managed to get home in time for a few hours of sleep, Artemis managed to get herself lost. The morning after she was sporting a swollen face, I decided to mention my theory of how she got it because she had been picking on me. That set her off and we raced around the city with her after us, we split up as we headed into the market square to loose her. After hiding there a while I headed back to my lodging, where I was met by Ares."

"The god of war?" Tim interrupts.

"Bloodshed is a more accurate term, Athena is the war god in the Greek pantheon while Ares represents murder and wanton bloodshed. Anyways, he wanted me to become his own personal champion, a kind of opposite to Diana I suppose. But before he even made the offer, he forced me to believe I lived as an Amazon around the time they still lived on the mainland. Thanks to him, I now have memories of a life I never had, of the torments they endured. The vision began to blend into the real world and I engaged Ares, believing he was Hercules. I wanted to occupy him to buy the others time to escape, but when they came back I thought they wanted revenge on him. By then the barracks I had been staying in was a crater, fortunately Diana got her lasso on me before I tried to kill Ares with his own axe, which would have damned me to his side."

"Diana told me you had that encounter and that you refused to have the memories removed." Bruce mentions, before silencing Richards outburst before it comes with a glare.

"Even if it was done by a divine being, I know the memories will still be there waiting for the wrong time to resurface. It's better I accept they are there so they can't surprise me. After that I was determined to complete the training, getting patted on the head by Zeus along the way when he came to apologize for his son's behavior...we still aren't sure why really. It all culminated in a grand show in the great amphitheater, where we got to show off what we had learned. I ended up drawing for the overall first place with Artemis. After that Diana wanted a go at me as well."

"So she got her rematch?" Richard asks.

"She did, it took her a while though and neither of us was in any great shape afterwards, but she won. After the fight, Queen Hippolyta asked if I would join them because of what Ares did to me and how I acted during it, in front of most of the Amazons and I accepted." Raven finishes, deciding to leave out the party and the embarrassing moments afterwards.

"And here I thought Richard said it was impossible to get you into the gym back in the day and here you tell us about an extended throw down with Wonder Woman of all people." Tim exclaims.

"You've decided to keep this from the League, why?" Bruce asks.

"Because if I come out and say I am an Amazon now, some members of the League will either back down in respect of Diana or think worse; that I have brainwashed an entire island. Which is why I hope you won't pass it on, until Diana or myself chooses to reveal it to the rest of them?"

"And no one else knows about this?" He asks.

"Barbara does, as she listened in on a conversation I had with Diana earlier, that's why my initial training with them was me against all four of them, before I had a rematch. We only told the others that I'm running on a 1/3 of what a usual Amazon is capable of and that it was just something I got by accident." The room is filled with a strange silence for a few moments with Bruce and Richard being lost in thought, Tim just staring in amazement. Internally two of Ravens emotions are having a debate whenever her new allegiance will cost her the relationship with Bruce and should be prepare for him asking her to leave, but part of her reasons that Bruce isn't cruel before he finally speaks again.

"Do you like it over there?" He asks.

"I think I became a different person over there, and yes, I very much like the place. It's the first place I've gone that's accepted me for what I am without making it a big deal out of it. The others were initially told that I just had rare skin and had 'issues', when they caught me meditating during the morning, Philipus, speculated quite accurately what I am. The others weren't worried about that, they were more upset that no one had told them. I learned later that Penelope and Antiope, were under orders to kill me if I displayed any 'fiendish activity'."

"So it's the people you like?" He continues.

"It is." She replies.

"I hope the normal world has not lost all of its appeal to you." Richard mentions, fearing that when given a chance Raven would move to a place no man could go without risking severe repercussions.

"It has not; Themyscira does not have the need for me to be there to defend it. And it does not have you or the others." Richard smiles a little at her last remark, happy to know he was one of the reasons she chose to come back. "And Starfire still needs our help."

"I suspect you have obligations to Themyscira now?" Bruce asks.

"I do, you know what lies beneath the island?" He nods. "There may come a time where I along with Diana have to go back to defend the island in case those gates are opened."

"And if something happens in the outside world simultaneously?" He continues.

"Queen Hippolyta left it to me to decide where I was needed most and assured me she would only call if the need is dire." Bruce nods slowly accepting the answer.

"Umm what exactly is it you have to fight over there?" Richard asks.

"Beneath Themyscira lies a gate into a part of the underworld called Tartarus, where Hades was banished. Raven would be called back to hold back the damned, like Diana was once, when Faust reentered Tartarus and left the door open." Bruce says quietly, Raven finally works up the courage to ask something herself.

"You are disappointed that I have obligations elsewhere?" She asks, Bruce lets on a slight smile, which she isn't sure is because she is wrong or because he is muting himself so well.

"I only fear you may commit yourself to too many places. But no, I am not disappointed. Everyone deserves a place to call home, I am just more surprised it happened to be on Themyscira you found one, and I think Richard and Tim will agree with me on that one." He says and looks at the two.

"I think everyone who knows you will be." Richard admits, knowing a certain pair in Metropolis will be feinting at the news.

"Well, since there are no more secrets between you, might I suggest we invite the ravishing Miss Diana over for supper?" Alfred suggest as he enters the study, apparently having heard it all.

"Actually that is a good idea; Raven can get the full brief of what she actually can do now." Richard adds, cornering Bruce.

"Won't it be a problem with J'onn coming over as well?" Raven asks.

"J'onn is good at keeping quiet." Bruce says. "Ok I will see if she is free for this evening."

"So an impromptu dinner party?" Tim suggests.

"An excellent idea Master Timothy, I will begin preparing immediately." Alfred says cheerfully as he exits the study.

"Do did that to get me into a dress didn't you?" Raven glares at Richard.

"Don't worry Rae; I made sure Alfred got you something you'll like." Richard assures, while patting Tim on the back for suggesting it.

_The Watchtower_

"Why hello Bruce." Diana greets the voice in her earpiece, while walking down the corridors of the League space station.

"_Diana, I was wondering if you are free tonight?"_

"Hmm, maybe?" She replies in a teasing tone, wanting to know more while hoping it is not another stake out.

"_Good, I would like you to come have dinner with us at Wayne Manor tonight. Wear something formal and tell J'onn."_ Bruce closes the line as Diana almost collides with one of the engineers.

Later that afternoon Raven has discovered the entirety of wardrobe that now belongs to her, and is arguing with Richard about it.

"Richard there's a small fortune in clothes in those closets!" Raven exclaims, having identified a few **very** expensive brands amongst the selections. Richard is lying on his bed staring at the ceiling with a smirk on his face.

"You make it sound like there's something wrong?" He looks up to get the full view of Raven in a state between overwhelmed, aggravated and disbelief standing in his doorway, that look alone is almost worth the deed to him.

"Dick how much did you spend?" She asks sternly.

"I'm not saying." He answers, knowing the old Tower could have run a month or three of the amount.

"I can't accept it, food and lodgings are ok, really, and I appreciate you are willing to give me that much. But I can't accept thousands of dollars worth of clothes I may never wear!" She continues while crossing her arms out of frustration.

"You forget Rae he hides the Leagues satellite in his company's budget, what you have in there is like a grain of sand in a desert to him." Raven sighs at his note, it was larger grain to Richard but one he gladly gave away.

"I'm not worth that, and he hardly knows me." Richard rolls his eyes at her, knowing she was back to the old insecurities and low self esteem. Searching his memory he would guess it is the grey cloaked emotion Beastboy and Cyborg encountered years ago that's the dominant one right now.

"Come on Rae, its Bruce we are talking about, he knows everyone as well as anyone can from a distance. Which means; he knows you as well as the rest of us who lived with you for years." Raven is silent for a moment silently admitting it is probably true.

"I'm still not worth them." Now it's Richard turn to sigh at her. "And I will look like an idiot." Richard falls back on the bed to stare at the ceiling.

"You'll look fine Rae…" He starts but is cut off.

"I'm not made for high class stuff like that, look at me!" She says while throwing her cape and hood behind her while Richard sits up again to look. "It wasn't my type they were thinking of when they made it."

"Your type?" He asks, assuming Raven sees something different in the mirror than what he does right now, sure she didn't look tall to him but he knew that she had much more weight than the people she was probably thinking of.

"I'm plain Richard, not of the skinny super model types meant to wear those things." She grumbles.

"People make the clothes Raven, you should know that." He sighs remembering the many 'traffic light' comments from her; despite them he did make criminals fear him.

"I'll look like a freak…" She trails off, causing Richard to jump off the bed which startles her because he flips from teasing to deadly serious in a split second.

"That's enough Raven! The only people who get to call you that are the ones we used to beat into the ground in Jump City!" Raven stares at him coldly.

"I have grey skin that occasionally turns red, if that's not freakish I don't know what is." She says calmly.

"So? Starfire has orange skin, Garfield is green and Victor is half metal. If you think of yourself as a freak, then you have bent over to the bully tactics the gossip papers use and begun to believe the junk they write." He says while crossing his arms across his chest.

"I…" She is cut off from a reply.

"Rae I've seen you kill a 90 feet tall demon, seen the corpse of a dragon you killed as well. I heard two hours ago from your own mouth that you have engaged a god in physical combat and now you are arguing with me over whenever you are worth putting into a dress and that it won't look good on you. Just go pick one and I'm sure you will look great, besides it's not like we are having a crowd of journalists with us only to prod you."

"There's J'onn." She says putting up her last line of defense and excuse to remain in her cloak.

"What I hear from Bruce is he doesn't actually wear clothes. And you have seen what outfit he wears in costume, so I wouldn't make fun of fashion if I was him. Trust me Rae, you'll look great. Now get back in there." He says with a smirk while pushing her out of his room while a little voice in his head reminds him that of course he would think she'd look good since he had been out getting it for her.


	29. Light Dinner

"Welcome to Wayne Manor Miss Diana and Mister Jones." Alfred greets the pair waiting in the doorway.

Diana is wearing a deep red strapless dress that hugs her shape, the bottom of it ends at her ankles and is cut open at the sides to her knees. As always she is wearing her bracelets. J'onn has taken the guise of a human with golden and slightly curly hair, a long jaw and piercing brown eyes. The brown trench coat he is wearing is usually worn with the grey suit underneath, but for tonight her has replaced the grey with a white tuxedo and a red butterfly.

"Thank you Alfred." Diana says with a smile as she enters the house.

"Shall I take your coat Mister Jones?" Alfred asks.

"No, thank you." J'onn replies in his usual flat voice, after the door is closed he absorbs the coat back into his body.

"Very good, if you will follow me." Alfred motions for them to follow him into down the hallways into the dining hall, where they find Bruce, Richard and Tim sharing a private joke as they loiter around the fireplace. Bruce is leaning against it with a glass of water in his hand, Richard standing in front of him with his hands in his jacket pockets while Tim is sitting in a chair facing them. They are all wearing black tuxedos with white shirts underneath and red ties. Alfred clears his throat as he steps aside from the door to let the two behind him enter. The group inside immediately straighten up, Richard takes his hands out of his pockets and Tim jumps out of the chair.

"Master Wayne may I present; Princess Diana of Themyscira and Detective John Jones."

"Diana, glad you could come." Bruce says while walking over to kiss her hand, before turning to J'onn. "And welcome J'onn." He says while extending his hand to shake.

"Thank you Mr. Wayne." J'onn replies while shaking his hand.

"Master Wayne, shall I go fetch Miss Raven?" Alfred asks.

"You may Alfred." Bruce replies.

"I hope she hasn't decided to go patrolling the city while we weren't looking." Richard mentions as he overhears Alfred suggestion, it's been two hours since any of them had last seen her. "She was…erm, overwhelmed by what we had found for her for these kinds of occasions." He explains as Bruce and Diana quirks eyebrows.

"Took us two hours to get her into a dress for a small formal event on Themyscira." Diana mentions, figuring the men were leaving Raven to dress herself.

"I thought It was all training over there?" Tim asks.

"My mother wanted to have a chance to talk to her under more relaxed circumstance, so she invited her and a few others for dinner." Diana replies, Bruce and Richard guess that it was also a celebration of Raven joining them.

"So J'onn, you are really from Mars?" Tim asks as he turns his attention to him.

"Yes, I am a Martian." J'onn replies flatly.

"Don't look like it." Tim continues, thinking J'onn looks like he came out of the old Casablanca movie.

"You don't have to pretend while inside the mansion J'onn." Bruce mentions, J'onn nods before changing his hands and face to what the world is used to seeing.

"I heard it was a formal dinner, so I will keep the suit." He says with a slight smirk, it is a little known fact in the League that J'onn often watches old movies in an attempt to understand humans better. Wally have often pointed out it is the fewest humans that act like the ones in the movies do.

"Whoa, that's more like it!" Tim exclaims happily.

"Tim, be civil." Richard says quietly while poking him with his elbow. "So J'onn what are you planning for Raven?"

"I hope she will join me in a meditative trance, where we can walk each other's minds. What I have seen so far in hers is quite fascinating; I hope she might find what she will see in my mind equally so." J'onn explains.

"Not to be offending or something, but I heard Raven mention unwelcome entries into a mind is a gross violation?" Richard asks, not wanting to use the exact words Raven used.

"It is amongst telepaths, it was on Mars amongst my own people and here on Earth as well. And what you heard is a figure of speech, but close to what we think of it."

"So when you have to do it to a non-psychic?" Richard continues.

"It is different, telepaths are generally more in control of and more sensitive regarding their minds than others, and we can sense the intrusion long after it is gone where others may never have noticed it was there. You may think of a psychic's mind like sand, if someone is to step in it, there will be prints. A non-psychic in comparison is almost solid rock." J'onn explains.

"So we wouldn't know if you are actually inside our heads right now?" Tim asks.

"You would, I didn't say you wouldn't know if someone is there now, only the most careful telepaths would be able to do it unnoticed. We can however pick up stray thoughts that are being projected, like you inner voices. Like you are wondering why I'm not small." Tim's jaw drops before Richard pokes him in the side again, Bruce and Diana let out small chuckles. From behind them Alfred clears his throat.

"Master Wayne, honored visitors, I would like to present Miss Raven." This time it is Richard whose jaw drops as Raven appears in the doorway, he quickly receives an elbow in the side from Bruce.

Diana is oddly reminded of a dress she once wore in Paris. The one Raven is wearing is black, long enough to reach her ankles, with a white stripe circling the dress halfway up her shin. Like the one Diana wore, Raven's dress hugs her figure, unlike Diana's however, this one supports itself, without the need for the spaghetti straps Diana's had. Leaving her shoulders exposed, along with her arms and her bracelets Diana notes with a smirk. Raven puts on a small smile on her face as she sees Diana.

"So I take it they know, sister." Diana greets her in a warrior fashion like she did after apologizing for her own behavior, by extending her arm with a clenched fist, which Raven mirrors with a smirk.

"They do sister." Raven replies. Richards mind goes blank for a moment, he had heard it from Raven herself, he has seen the bracelets, but apparently a large part of his mind was still in denial that Raven has become an Amazon and Diana has just confirmed it. If someone had told him a month ago that Raven was going to become an one, he would have laughed at the person before saying there must have been a mistake. It would have been Starfire that would become one, never the physically frail sorceress he thought he knew.

"By accident." Bruce admits. "You look good Raven." He adds with a knowing smirk, having passed by Richard's room while the two were arguing.

"Thank you Bruce." She replies while Bruce kisses her hand.

"Yeah you look neat." Tim adds.

"Thank you as well Tim, so what do you think Richard?" Raven asks, noticing Richard is staring.

"I'm at a loss for words." Richard manages, getting chuckle out of Bruce and a smile out of Diana.

"It seems I have been upstaged by you, sister." Diana notes with a smile, Raven hides her mild surprise at this.

"My apologies, sister."

"Take it as a compliment, so how did the world's greatest detective figure it out?" Diana asks.

"We had Raven do a little demonstration on a tree in the forest, turned out my parents had left a message in the trunk. Say Alfred, would you know anything about that?" Bruce asks his butler who is entering with the utensils.

"Why yes, they were very fond of visiting an old oak during the summers before you were born. I do believe your mother came to call it Oaky after you're farther carved their names into it. Do sincerely hope the old boy is still standing?" Alfred replies while remembering something.

"He should be fine, we found out when Raven put him back together." Bruce reassures.

"Well that's good. Dinner shall be served in a few moments." Alfred walks out of the room after Bruce's nod of approval at the announcement.

"Good to see you again J'onn." Raven greets the alien, who so far has remained silent since she entered.

"You too Raven. You've changed." He notes that there was parts of her psyche that had also grown since he last saw her.

"Well considering what she has been through, it is expected. But we should save that till later." Diana mentions as they take their seats.

"I do sincerely hope you will until after you've had a taste of my especially prepared steak with peas and mashed potatoes." Alfred says cheeringly as he pushes a trolley inside with several dishes. Raven notes the bottles in the bucket of ice are all apparently non-alcoholic, which she is quite relived about.

The dinner proves to be a jolly affair with many stories being swapped between them all; Bruce with a few about himself and what he had to do sometimes to get out of a party to save the city, Richard and Raven with a few of the adventures they had shared and some of the odd situations they'd had at the tower. Tim chips in with some about his friends from school and some about the two other heroes he lives with. Diana's leads over into the more heroic, mainly featuring her sisters past exploits. J'onn remains silent most of the time, but does add a few amusing moments he's experienced on Earth.

"I'm not surprised that he tries to x-ray his Christmas presents." Bruce mentions after J'onn finishes his tale of how he spent his first Christmas with Superman.

"Admit it Bruce, you'd do that as well if you could." Richard adds. "Good thing we have Tim to keep you away from monitor duty on that night." Between Richard leaving Gotham and Tim's appearance, some four years ago, Batman had almost a monopoly on guard duty on the station around Christmas. Richard had speculated it was because Bruce had no one but Alfred to celebrate it with, and because the times reminded Bruce too much that his parents were not there with him and how lonely he really was. Though he knows he goes to share cup of coffee with Commissioner Gordon on the night, something that had become a ritual to the two; to celebrate having survived another year.

"True, but that's just how I am." Bruce admits with a smirk. They are finishing their desserts, a chocolate soufflé with a strawberry on top. Having gone through a light appetizer consisting of fish, followed up by the main course. All served with water or fruit juice, Bruce had let Raven know that he never drank, in case he was called out. And that all the photos of him drunk or drinking were acts for the cameras.

Bruce had decided to use a smaller table this evening, large enough for eight so they wouldn't feel cramped or begin kicking each other's shins. Also he had the fore thought of arranging the seats, with him at one end, J'onn at the other, Richard and Raven on one side and Diana and Tim on the other, Richard had noted Bruce had placed both women next to him. It is as Raven leans forwards to finish off her soufflé he notes something on the exposed part of her back.

"Umm Rae what's that?" Raven looks over at him with her mouthful, chewing it quickly to be able to speak and not appear uncivilized.

"What? Do I have a spider crawling up my back?" She asks. Richard decides to tempt fate and pokes the scar he spotted sticking over her dress.

"That."

"Oh that, just bullet ricochet from a couple of armed robbers in Jump two years ago. Believe me, it took me a lot of time to get it out when I got back, had to hold a mirror while directing the tongs with my powers. I passed out when I finally got it out; when I woke up I healed the internal damage and forgot about it."

"Rae you should have called one of us." Richard informs her quietly.

"I spent the first month with thoughts of how much I missed one of you in different situations, before I finally accepted that I had to do everything by myself. And Cyborg did leave a small mountain's worth of instruction manuals, besides it's not like you're the one to talk." She replies remembering how many times her and the others had been denied to help him.

"I think that runs in the family." Diana adds, sending a knowing look at Bruce, who pretends not to notice.

"Touché Raven, but you could at least have let us know you had been shot." Richard continues.

"I didn't want you all to storm over to fuss over me, besides it was not the first one." Raven replies calmly. "Anyways if you will excuse me for a moment." She continues as she gets up and heads out to find the bathroom, well aware that Richard is staring after her. Tim decides after a moment to ask something that should have been asked by Raven.

"So Diana we have heard Raven is only running on 1/3 of what Amazons are fueled by, so are you expecting her to go back and finish off the rest?"

"If she wants to, but as she has proven, she hardly needs it." Diana replies while looking down at the boy next to her.

"I was unaware that your people took in outsiders at that age?" J'onn mentions.

"We take in those we find worthy or those whom we can mold. But we have had very few of either, as you can guess. I know my mother has her own reasons for it, but she has said nothing about them, and refused when I asked."

"Could Shayera be a candidate for example?" Bruce asks.

"I am not sure. But outsiders will have to either share our burdens or perform a great feat to be accepted." Diana explains.

"Like fighting Ares?" Tim asks.

"In Ravens case she did both, engaging him for our sakes and turning her back on him while having him at her mercy. My mother said that Raven made the same choice she had to for deliverance, and that meant a lot to her personally. But believe me it is the fewest outsiders that can manage it."

"Well it's good to know she can make the right choices." Bruce says. "Actually while we are on the subject, Raven will need a few pointers about how to handle and effectively workout with the sudden increase of physical strength."

"I will, it will be good to have another sparring partner." Diana replies with a smirk.

"Was two fights not enough?" Raven asks as she appears in the doorway.

"What can I say, Shayera and Barda tend to fight a like and Superman holds back. Actually that reminds me, Barda is still waiting for that rematch." Raven sighs as she sits down, having forgotten the towering woman.

"I hope she will settle with one round." The company settles into comfortable silence, listening to the fire. Before Richard opens his mouth.

"So Raven since you admit having been shot several times, how many scars is that dress hiding?" Everyone at the table seems to stare at him, which goes completely unnoticed by him. Raven just narrows her eyes at him.

"Richard; think before you talk. Diana, what do you say to a little fresh air?" Raven gets up again and walks out the room with the smirking Princess in tow. Leaving the men behind.

"I do believe you could have put that better." J'onn says quietly.

"Yeah Dick, that was something the guys in my class come up with when trying to sound older." Tim adds, Bruce settles for chuckling as Richard groans before burying his head in his arms on the table.

"Has young Master Richard let his tongue run off with him again?" Alfred asks as he enters the room.

"You know he cares about you?" Diana asks as the two enjoy the night air on the terrace.

"Yes, but it's bordering on the frustrating, you know I don't like to be fuzzed about and that's what's he's doing. Like I am incapable of taking care of myself." Raven grumbles.

"Well friends tend to worry when they learn one has been shot." Diana counters.

"Richard had some moments where he was almost hospitalized and then charged off immediately afterwards, we had to drag him back into bed."

"Would the reaction be different had it been one of your other friends?" Diana asks, somehow beginning to see similarities between Raven and Bruce. Raven sighs before answering.

"Richard is the only one that can do what he does around me. Everyone backs off when I tell them to, he just sees it as a challenge. Even Garfield would have thought of a better way to ask the question he did, what Richard asked just lay too close to some of the emotions he's being transmitting since I met him here."

"So you are aware he may be attracted to you?" Raven nods at the question.

"And you know why I can't return his affection; I just don't know what will happen. Besides I don't know if it's just a crush on his part…from what I've read, Richard Grayson could have any woman he'd want."

"Yet he casts his sights on you, who knows Richard may be picky? Besides how do you know something bad will happen?" Diana asks.

"I fear that I will wake up with nothing of him left, I just can't risk something like that." Raven sighs.

"Well you can always take precautions or find someone more durable to try with first." Raven freezes her pacing to stare at Diana before replying.

"I was certain all you had was water." Diana chuckles at her.

"Ok I'll stop. But let me tell you how I found out Bruce feels something for me. We once had to intercept several nuclear missiles heading for the same city. While we deactivated the warheads on all of them, one kept going after we managed to shut down the engines of the others. I tried to slow it down and succeeded, ending up with me getting buried under it. After getting my wind back I pushed it off and found the others had thought I had died and that Bruce, as the only one, had tried to dig me out with his bare hands. Of course he later claimed it was only concern for a team member that made him do it."

"He tries hard to be what people think of him." Raven admits, knowing Bruce had not done that during most of her stay with him.

"True, but that's one of the things I like about him. He is the only one of the founders without actual powers, yet he is probably better than all of us."

"You admire him for doing all that he can?" Raven asks as she leans against the railing Diana has been propped against since they came outside.

"He does more than anyone could ever expect of him, to the exclusion of everything." Diana sighs at the last part, knowing that meant her as well; Raven senses the shift in the woman.

"You will corner him one day." Raven assures while patting Diana's shoulder.

"And Richard will corner you." Diana replies with a smirk. "You know, I've noticed a lot of similarities between the relationships we have here tonight?"

"Oh? How's that?"

"Well as you have probably read, both Richard and I seem to be able to pick and choose, yet we both have our sights set on people that won't admit the feelings are mutual." Raven sighs at the comparison, wondering if it is a compliment or a warning that she may be sharing some Batman's personality.

"Well we both say we have our reasons and we probably both need therapy." Actually Raven was thinking that both Bruce and her would end up in Arkham if they ever went to a therapist and told everything.

"No, you just need to loosen up a bit." Diana says as she stares out at the city, as if on cue the infamous signal shaped like a bat lights up the sky, Diana sighs. "Well it's time to go to work."

"Looks like it." Raven says before they head inside to see the Bats already suiting up.

10 minutes later the group has assembled out of sight on a rooftop across from the police headquarters, where a solitary figure is staring at the sky next to the large sky light with the bat signal. Batman had told them all to wait there while he went over to hear the man out.

"It's strange, it's been relatively quiet since we brought in Roman, but a few days ago a series of burglaries began. No positive id as all security cameras in the locations had been blown off the wall, what recording we do have only shows the shops being lit up from the outside, like if someone brought a light into the place." Jim Gordon explains as Batman looks over the photos.

"What was stolen?" He asks.

"Hard cash and jewelry only."

"And no witnesses?"

"One, an officer Cole responded tonight to a burglary in the Tetson Jewelry Store. She said that when she arrived, she spotted a suspect coming out of the store, said he wore some kind of white and black suit. When Cole tried to apprehend him, the suspect threw something at her, blinding her, permanently." Batman looks up from the photos at this. "The doctors say she will live, but they say her eyes are like if she had been staring into the sun too long."

"I'll look into it." Batman replies.

"One other thing, I don't know if you can, but if you could ask that girl you had with you when we busted Roman to go see Cole, it would be appreciated. She's been mentioned a lot since she did what she did to the officers that were injured in the bust." Batman nods at the request.

"She has limitations, but I will ask if I see her." Gordon nods back his thanks before turning around to turn off the projector.

"She's currently in Gotham Memorial…" Gordon turns around again, finding himself alone on the roof. "One day I'm going to nail his boots to the floor." He sighs to no one.

"So what did the Commish have for us?" Robin asks as Batman return to the others.

"Burglar responsible for blinding an officer, wears a black and white suit only thing stolen is easy money, apparently capable of emitting light strong enough to burn out cameras. Raven?"

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise anything." She answers before he asks.

"She's in Gotham Memorial, under the name Cole, the rest of us will go to the crime scene." Raven nods at him before disappearing.

It takes a while to find Cole, as she wouldn't enter by the front door, it would take too long and involve too many questions. After finding the woman by listening in on the doctors, she has to wait for them to leave the room leaving her to sit outside on the wall for a good 15 minutes before the lights in Cole's room goes out. Creeping slowly into the room, Raven notes that it has a single bed; the occupant looks to be in her mid to late twenties, has short dark hair and has her eyes bandaged, she appears to be asleep. Raven turns solid next to the bed, looking at the woman for a moment, wondering how she is going to do this without waking her. As Raven knows from experience, when one's eyes cannot be used, other senses are strengthened and it is one of these that alerts the woman to her presence.

"Who's there?!" She asks suddenly while leaning away from Raven, who is a bit surprised.

"A friend. Cole I may be able to help you, I just need you to hold still." Raven replies, the woman appears to be a bit confused.

"O…Ok." She stammers, she had been told earlier that there was no hope for her sight. As Raven puts a hand over her eyes she asks. "Will this hurt?"

"It won't." Raven assures before her blue aura appears around her hand and slowly spreads onto the woman's face. "You may want to lie back, this will take some time." Cole does as instructed feeling oddly calm in the presence of the stranger. "Can I ask who did this to you?"

"I never got a good look, but he wore a black and white body suit, as I ordered him to surrender I only caught glimpse of a beard before everything went white then black." Raven has a feeling she knows who it is and sighs at the Jump City Penitentiary for not keeping him behind bars. "So who are you?"

"I'm…just a helping hand." Raven replies before falling silent for almost 10 minutes, muscles are easy for her to rebuild, but the human eyes are the most complex part of the body outside of the brain.

"HEY! What do you think you're doing?!" Ravens eyes bolt to the door seeing a male porter and a woman behind him standing there with a mixed expression on their faces. The orderly turns on the light, Raven decides to retreat and disappears in a puff of smoke.

"Melissa what happened, who was that?" The woman in the door pushes past the man to tend to Cole, the man moves quickly to the windows, seeing nothing outside of them.

"Mom?" Cole turns her head to the sound of the voice.

"It me dear, I came as soon as I could when I heard. What was that thing in here?!"

"She said she was here to help." Cole begins to fumble with her bandages.

"Miss you shouldn't, it could damage what's left." The orderly says as Melissa Cole tears the rest of the bandages from her head, squinting in the bright light.

"It's bright in here." She says before focusing on her mother. "You have been crying." Her mother is shocked for a second before being embraced by her daughter.

"A saint… it must have been an angle…" She mumbles as she begins to cry as she hugs her daughter, leaving the baffled orderly to get a doctor.

"Asides from everything looking like it has been left in the sun for too long, it looks like an ordinary burglary to me." Robin says while scratching his neck.

"Judging from the fading colors, the suspect came in through the door, probably activated whatever weapons he had outside in the streets." Nightwing thinks out loud.

"And moved directly to cash register, before going through the displays." Batman continues. Diana is pretty much left standing in the middle of the shop, while letting J'onn and the Bats work.

"The perpetrator has melted through the safe door." J'onn notes from the back room.

"Gordon said this is pretty much what this guy does?" Nightwing asks Batman who is examining the cash register closely with a flashlight.

"Yes." Batman replies without looking up.

"Ok, so he wants easy money has access to some advanced light based powers and wears a black and white suit." Nightwing surmises.

"Add that it is a body suit and that the officer who was injured thought she saw a beard and you get?" Raven says as she appears in the doorway.

"Arthur Light." Batman looks up from behind the counter at Richard's deduction.

"Dr. Light from Jump City?" He asks.

"Yeah, he fits the description; we always busted him with his hands full of other people's money, except for one time. He wears a suit and has a goatee, and he can manipulate light." Richard continues.

"Well it is a suspect." Batman notes as he goes back to examining the rest of the place. Nightwing does as well. Leaving the two amazons to look on, while Raven notes to herself that she could help, but as there are already four working on it and one of them is Batman.

"This is the tedious part, if you're not the one looking." Raven mentions to Diana, who really is bored. Normally her own cases didn't involve detective work and the few that did were usually handed over to Bruce.

"I feel like a fish out of water here." Diana confirms.

"Took me months to understand everything Robin left behind. But it did help against the crooks that proved a bit wiser or faster than most." Raven mentions, Bruce still focused on the job at hand mentally notes he needed to find out how good Raven is at detective work.

"Can you tell me what they are looking for?" Diana asks, having come to some ideas she couldn't confirm without disturbing someone.

"Fingerprints, to tell them who did it, or to tie a suspect to this place when caught. Sand, dirt or other fibers to tell them where the suspect might have been before coming here. If we had been lucky, there might have been blood or other types of DNA they can use for the same thing as the fingerprints. In this case they are also looking at the effect of whatever devices this guy is carrying so they won't be completely surprised when they find him and have to fight him. It can be summarized by the need to know the enemy." Raven explains, Batman and Nightwing let's on small smirks at Ravens summary, because it is what they are doing. "When they get back they will run all sorts of tests on the stuff the find, some will be discarded while others will be looked at closer."

"Now Raven, don't let all of our secrets slip." Nightwing mentions.

"Well those are mine, can't help it if they happen to be yours as well." Raven replies while crossing her arms.

"She's got a point Nightwing." Robin says from behind the women, busy examining what used to be a surveillance camera, now a molten mass of plastic.

"It's a delicate process Diana and I can't give you timeframe for when we are done. Raven how is the officer?" Batman mentions.

"I'm not sure, I felt that I was repairing what was damaged, but an orderly interrupted me before I had a chance to see the results."

"Well if it worked, we will hear about it. Diana why don't you and Raven see if there's any clues outside." Raven wonders, if the suggestion is because they are crowing the space, but opts not to say anything.

Outside as Raven examines the ground, Diana resorts to window shopping. It is a side street with all sorts of small shops, the jewelry shop lies besides a book store and a clothes' shop, Raven notes Diana grimacing at the dresses on display.

"I still don't understand why women would dress in something like this?" She says, looking at a loose green dress that's a little transparent.

"Me neither, but I usually get into an argument if I say so." Raven replies, guessing it would be ill advised to mention Diana's armor is little better than a swimsuit, divinely crafted or not. Diana moves to the next shop.

"This one is even worse, it doesn't even have dignity." Raven looks up to see what it is her sister finds so distasteful. Finding her looking into a sex-shop, the offending garment proves to be a two piece bikini set, or rather a frame of a bikini made out of black leather straps', leaving the most important area's exposed on the mannequin it's attached to.

"Umm, that's not a clothes shop and the press would have field day if they caught you looking at it." Diana moves away from the window to look at Raven instead.

"So what is it?" Raven had been hoping to avoid that kind of question.

"Umm, sometimes people out here want their, well… sexual relationships to be a bit more exciting. They can go into shops like that for some of the items needed for that." She explains.

"And can I ask how you know this?" Diana asks.

"Had to arrest a bank robber that had taken cover inside a similar store in Jump City once, guy who owned it gave me a 20% discount for the publicity he was getting."

"Oh." Diana wonders if she should try and see what's inside at another time.

"Diana, I can sense your curiosity from here, I'll advise you to look like someone else when you go in." Raven advises; Diana shrugs.

"I'll take it under advisement sister." At that moment a static in the Leaguers ears, as well as Nightwing's and Robin's.

"_To all Leaguers in the Gotham City vicinity, this is Oracle. There is a GCPD report of a robbery in the first national bank. Reports go that a monster has been sighted tearing its way into the bank. Police has it surrounded in the bank as we speak."_ Inside the shop Batman acknowledges that the situation will be handled by those present. It has to be serious when Oracle didn't settle with calling Batman, and only Batman.


	30. Monsters and Maniacs

Five minutes later the heroes arrive at the scene, after a brief flight with Diana carrying Batman, J'onn holding onto Nightwing and Raven with Tim. Landing on a rooftop overlooking the destroyed bank entrance where they can see the police line, Batman lays down the battle plan.

"Diana I want you to take the entrance, Raven and J'onn you go through the walls and scout out what we are dealing with, Robin and Nightwing take a window, I'll cover the rear entrance." They all nod their agreement before heading off. J'onn and Raven by sinking through the roof, the Bat-clan by shooting grappling hooks onto the roof of the bank before swinging over and Diana by flying down before entering.

Inside Diana notes whatever monster was reported had pushed several desks out of its way as it has moved deeper into the bank, the trail disappearing behind a wall at the back. Eager for the fight, Diana flies through the room and rounds the corner.

Nightwing and Robin spends a little time finding a window that was not barred, finally entering on the 2nd floor they silently fall into the routine by silently scouting out the place before making their way down the stairs to the first floor. Their movements grow ever more cautious as they move around, not knowing what to expect.

J'onn and Raven move silently through the walls, J'onn completely transparent and Raven as a shadow. They both move in the same direction even without having said a word, both having sensed either thoughts or emotions coming from a certain spot in the bank.

In the cramped corridors Diana resorts to running instead of flying, not wanting to alert anyone to her presence by her unintentionally flying through a wall. The creature is big as far as she can tell, or it just enjoys scraping the paint off the walls and ceiling, and the corridor is wide enough for three people to walk side by side. Slowing down as she hears voice coming from behind a mauled half open vault door, she leans against the wall and inches closer to have a look. Inside the vault she sees three men and something massive. The three consists of one tall man in a black and white body suit. The second is a redhead wearing light blue jeans brown shoes and a Union Jack patterned vest while wielding a ruby tipped cane in one hand. That last one is unshaven and overweight wearing a black trench coat with orange hair. The thing in front of them is three times the height of a man apparently consisting of slabs of concrete, electrical energy and brownish red goo with multiple green blisters on the top of its head. The three men are all arguing between themselves.

"This is a mistake; I can hear the sirens outside." The black suited man says in a deep voice as the thing pulls the bars away from the area holding the gold bars.

"Like those little light shows you put on when you went shopping earlier was any better mate." The red head replies with a distinctive British accent.

"Stop worrying you two, with the big guy we have nothing to worry about. When we move out he will get all the attention while we get away, like in Godzilla!" The fat one exclaims confidently.

"And when they subdue him, how exactly are we going to get our gold?" The black suit continues as the thing begins stuffing its face with the gold bars.

"Who says they can?!" The fat one counters, while the two end up staring at each other with clenched fists.

"Yanks…" The Brit grumbles behind the growling pair.

At this point Diana has radioed back and gotten instructions, the monster is for her and J'onn to deal with. Having received orders, Diana charges into the vault, aiming for the beast smashing straight through it, but causing it to drop it meal. The thing staggers and falls to the ground.

"I don't suppose you gentlemen are interesting in surrendering?" Diana asks, while being covered in goo. The response it not immediate, the three is apparently surprised. The redhead is the first to react, by hightailing towards the door.

"The Yanks are coming! The Yanks are coming!" Is his only comment as he disappears down the halls.

"We are not giving up without a fight, get her P.O.C!" The fat one orders the monster into action as it gets back on its feet, it shrieks once before engaging Diana by sending out several gooey tentacles that wrap themselves around the Amazon. Diana's hair begins to stand on end as the tentacles begin channeling electrical power. At this point J'onn emerges out from the wall and slams into the side of the thing, sending it crashing through the opposite wall and drops Diana. The pair of heroes quickly follows it out.

"I do believe it's time to do like the Brit." The black suit says as he takes on a white glow and disappears into a light bulb.

"Cowards." The fat one grumbles at the now empty room.

"Control Freak? And I thought you were still frozen." A voice is heard from behind him, making him turn around to see Nightwing and Robin walking into the vault.

"If there is a pause button, there is a play button." Control Freak says with a smirk as he reaches into his coat pocket and retrieves a TV remote.

"Robin, get the remote!" Nightwing says before leaping into action.

Dr. Light emerges in an alley besides the bank; it's empty besides the two overflowing waste bins near the exit to the main street where he can see the police, and the trash littering the alley. Next to the bank is another building with no doors to this side, the alley is lit by a series of lamps secured to the wall of the bank along with the camera near the back that's watching him. Seeing the police cars and hearing a crash coming from the main street, Dr. Light decides to go around the back, guessing it will be less guarded and Amazon free.

"Blink and you'll miss me." He smirks to himself, quite pleased to have gotten clear and leaving the two dolts and Slade's Frankenstein monster behind. "Now all I have to do I collect what we have and get out the city." He says confidently as he makes his way deeper into the alley.

He takes a few steps before he sees the lamp furthest from him dim and go out, which causes him to slow down a little; he stops completely when the lamp next to it repeats its neighbor. He gets nervous when the lamps goes out one after another, letting the darkness come closer to him before it engulfs him and continues to take out the lights behind him. Dr. Light grits his teeth and forms a glowing ball of light in his left hand, letting it hover above his index finger, he notes that the ball hardly lights anything other than his own body.

"I'm not scared of you, you're just a guy in a suit!" He growls menacingly at the shadows. "At least, I hope you are…" He adds quietly, like everyone in America he has heard the tales of the Batman that stalks the criminals in Gotham City, personally he had dismissed the myth as a tricks of the light at best. "Gah!" Arthur turns around quickly as one of the trashcans at the entrance falls over and a cat storms out of the alley. Turning around again he continues walking further into the alley, guessing he is getting close to the end, he is confirmed as a light around the corner flickers, his heart sinks as the light also reveals a figure barring his path. Bunching up his courage Light tries to appear menacing in his own light. "Out of the way!" The figure seems to move towards him as the light flickers again. "I'm warning you!"

"Why Arthur, is that a way to greet an old friend?" The figure says, making a chill crawl up Arthur's spine in recognition.

"That voice?" He asks, hoping it is his mind making up the similarity.

"This voice." The figure confirms in a flat tone, as it comes close enough for Arthur to make out the outline of it by his own light.

"NO! No it can't be! You're dead! I even moved across country to get away from you!" Light panics but remains frozen to the spot, now his own light begins to flicker as his focus begins to slip.

"I will always be with you Arthur, whenever you step over the line, I will be there to beat you back. I am going to give you to the count of ten to get out of the alley and hand yourself over." Raven states calmly. "One, two..." Light lets his glowing ball evaporate has he turns and storms towards the exit that seems further away than he remembers, behind him he can hear Raven counting in a steady pace. He is 10 meters from the exit as he hears the ominous finality. "Ten." Arthur leaps forwards, knocking over the other trashcan and lands with his arms and face outside of the alley, he breathes a sigh of relief. "You are still here." Raven's voice, right behind him, makes Arthur's heart skip a beat before he feels something wrap around his legs.

"NO! GOD NO! NOT THAT!" He screams as he feels himself being pulled into the darkness and the power of his suit being drained, desperate to save himself he clings to the corner of the building. His screams are heard a by a few of the spectators standing behind the police line, who alerts some of the officers. Three begin running over to the panicking man, whose grip fails him just before they reach him. He disappears with a yelp into the darkness, with a look of utter terror in his eyes. The officers are reluctant to enter the alley as they hear a series of thumps, screams and threats.

"I've told you several times, I don't want to catch you doing this Arthur." A thump and a crack followed by a scream. "Let this be a lesson to you." The voice continues in a hiss, as another scream is heard. "Now be gone, and don't let me hear about you doing something like this ever again!" The voice warns before Light is hurled out of the alley landing just in front of the officers in broken, mewing heap. Sporting a right arm that's bending in an odd shape, a black eye and a swollen lip.

"Bloody Yanks! Always spoiling it for the old boys." Mad Mod complains as he is working his way through the bank toward the parking lot he knows is in the back, emerging out into the empty loading area, he takes on a pleased smirk as he sees no one in the area. "HA! Merry ol' Britain wins again!"

"Not tonight." A stern voice say from above Mad Mod, who turns and looks up at the lower roof sheltering the loading area, seeing a large man in a bat shaped costume leap off the edge of the building gliding, feet first, towards him.

"Blimey!" Is the last thing Mod says before two large boots make themselves felt on his chest.

"This isn't over! You hear me!" Control Freak complains from his tied up position on the ground, Nightwing rolls his eyes behind his mask, Tim whispers to him;

"Was he always like that?"

"Yup, and he will return like a bad sequel." Nightwing whispers back. "So what's that thing you dragged along?" He asks Control Freak.

"Why should I tell you?" Freak asks back with a smirk as if he was a suspect in a police series.

"Because I can put you in a place where they don't get cable." Nightwing smirks back as the obese man pales at the thought.

"It's Cinderblock, Overload and Plasmus. Light found Slade's old design for the device to make him!" He answers quickly, fearing being left some here like that.

"So Light is here. Did you bring anyone else?" Nightwing asks while crouching down in front of him.

"Mad Mod. But they are both long gone you won't get them now!"

"He doesn't know us very well? Does he?" Robin asks in a Bugs Bunny-like voice.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be my age?" Control Freak asks, eyeing Robin, who to him looks even younger than he was when they were both in Jump City.

"Nope, I've always been my age, one of the perks of being Robin." Tim replies with the standard answer they had worked out when Richard returned and pointed out the difference in size and age between the two of them and the possibility of someone noticing.

"You're smaller than you used to be!" Control Freak insists.

"I think you've had your head too much in the TV." Tim counters.

"AHA I knew it! There's more than one!" Control Freak cheers; Nightwing and Robin give each other questioning looks. "The Robin I knew never made jokes, only stupid one-liners." The fat man explains with an evil smirk, marveling at his own intelligence.

"Who knows maybe I changed?" Robin asks, not wanting to be put off.

"No one changes a main character!" Control Freak seethes. The two heroes just sigh at the TV-obsessive man on the floor.

Outside in the view of at least 20 policemen and twice the number of spectators, including reporters, Diana and J'onn are dancing a dangerous dance with the merged monsters, trying to keep it within the perimeter established by the police, one flying officer and two squashed cars tell of their limited success.

"_You're enjoying this." _J'onn mentions telepathically as he tries again to grab hold of one of the primary arms, only for the thing to grow more.

"_It's a good workout, but we are no closer to finding a weak spot on this thing. Any luck with your attempts?"_ She sends back, striking one of the green pimples only for it to explode, covering the princess in green goo, adding to the brow stuff already covering her.

"_No, it's thought's are confusing, like there are several minds thinking for it, but ones seems scared." _J'onn sends before catching an extending fist, smashing him into the ground before it sends a current along the arm, getting a scream out of J'onn.

"J'ONN!" Diana shouts before rushing to her friend's side, leaving the monster to tower above the two. Diana admonishes herself for getting distracted. As the beast raises its arms for another strike, the ground beneath it seems to erupt in black tentacles that wraps themselves around the creatures and pulls it back, causing it to fall on its back.

"Diana, there's a small disc on his chest, break it!" Raven's voice is heard from the shadows.

Diana doesn't need to be told twice as she spots the small thing that's shaped like light bulb, of all things, she jumps up on the things chest, bringing her fists down on the contraption. There is a flash of light, Diana is thrown back and Raven is heard giving off a shriek somewhere. When the light fades, instead of one monster there are now three, one made of rock, one composed of electricity and one made of goo all of them get groggily to their feet. As does Diana and J'onn; who look disturbed by the development.

"Never…one…Always three… J'onn…make the goo sleep…" Raven speaks again, she sounds hurt as she speaks with difficulty. Diana does not hesitate, having made the mistake once tonight as she rushes the walking concrete block finding it much less durable than the combined monster. J'onn's eyes glow yellow as he focuses on the mind of Plasmus, ordering it to fall asleep, the goo pile sinks to its knees before seemingly coming apart leaving a half naked man in black trunks fast asleep on the ground.

"Foolish biological's! Overload will destroy!" The remaining monster seems to grow in size for a moment before a small round grenade strikes the chip in the center and lets out a blue colored smoke, leaving the chip frozen in a block of ice. Everyone looks to where the grenade might have come from, seeing nothing but an obese man shouting something and an unconscious and very old man tied up back to back, sitting on the steps to the banks entrance. Diana smirks shortly before they are surrounded by press and police. After answering a bunch of questions halfheartedly they excuse themselves, both of them are worried about how Ravens last words were delivered.

Alfred is treading softly on the rugs in the hallways of Wayne Manor, wearing a green morning coat, brown slippers and a shotgun, the silent alarm in his room had been triggered 4 minutes ago. That the alarm had gone off meant that someone had managed to get past the security on the lawn and the person is now inside the house. While Bruce does have a safe in the house, it is mostly for display and a place for one to park drinks on. Wayne Manor actually has very little in hard cash or easy to sell valuables lying around, if one discounted the furniture and the few original paintings Bruce has hanging. One thing Alfred did know worth stealing though is the silverware, which is kept in a small locked room near the infirmary. Moving silently with the gun ready, he gets closer to the two rooms, hearing someone rummaging around inside the infirmary.

"_This is new." _Alfred thinks, he had heard and been warned about it, but that a possible drug addict breaking into Wayne Manor? Alfred hears something like a plastic container being dropped, spilling the pills inside and receiving some muffled curses along the way. Alfred leans up against the doorframe and steals a quick peek inside, seeing someone in the room. Taking a deep breath he moves to stand in the doorframe with the gun pointed at the person.

"Identify yourself." He says calmly. The figure spins around to face him, piecing him with violet eyes.

"Alfred?" Raven asks, her fuzzy head makes it hard for her to see who is in the doorway.

"Miss Raven? What are you…oh dear." Alfred puts the gun down as he see's Raven's raw and bloody hands, a few of her fingers seem to bend in angles they aren't mean to. "Your hands?"

"Held…onto something…that blew up." Raven stammers from the blood loss. Alfred moves over quickly to inspect the damage; nothing there is five fingers in total that are broken, possible nerve damage and what looks to be granite splinters in the wounds.

"We need to get you into the cave. Can you walk?" He asks her as he also notes she is swaying a little.

"Think…so." She tries to take a few steps before she stumbles and leans against the door frame. Alfred, used to stubborn individuals, walks over and grabs her right arm and forces her to lean against him as they slowly makes their way down into the cave, with Alfred keeping her talking all the way. Once in the cave infirmary, Alfred deposits Raven on the single bed before putting on a pair of rubber gloves and rolls up his sleeves. Getting her to lay down, he begins cleaning the wounds while continuing talking.

"Even Master Wayne knows not to hold onto explosives when they go off." He mentions, trying to seem cheerful.

"Old monster…Richard and I once fought…had to…separate it…didn't know…it would blow up." Raven mumbles. "Used…my powers…to hold onto it…"

"I see, I understand you can heal yourself?" Alfred had been informed of some of the things Raven was capable of and is a bit worried she had not done anything to help herself.

"Psychic backlash when it blew…sapped most of my….energy, took all I had…to get back." She replies as her eyelids sink to half closed, Alfred notes it is fortunate that he is done cleaning, now comes the setting of the bones.

"Miss Raven I am going to ask you to stand up, I need to set the bones." Raven nods at his request and swings her legs over the bedside and stands up, swaying a little on her feet. "Hold around me, but don't squeeze too hard." He instructs as he grabs hold of her right arm, starting with the index finger. Raven leans against his back, holding onto him with her left arm; Alfred is blocking the view of her injured right hand, in the distance, Raven can hear the roar of engines coming closer. Alfred distracts her with talk as he can feel she is tensing in her hand. "You know Master Richard likes you?"

"Yes…" Raven replies, relaxing in her hand for a second, Alfred seizes the moment and sets the bone back in place, getting the air forced out of him as Raven holds back a scream with gridded teeth and squeezes the old man. Alfred moved onto the middle finger.

"Very good Raven." He compliments, getting his breath back. "Do you like him as well?" He continues.

"Yes." Again she relaxes and Alfred sets the bone, getting a whimper out of Raven this time. Moving quickly, he also sets the pinky finger, getting sob out of her this time.

"You're doing well Raven." Alfred compliments, secretly wondering how much she can stand. Alfred shifts her around to take care of the other digits, the thumb first. From her position Raven can see the headlights of the Batmobile in the tunnel to the outside world. "Does he know?"

"No…I don't trust myself enough to risk…such a thing." Raven groans as the thumb is put back into place, Alfred notes the last one, the middle finger is the worst of them all, the digit is bent over backwards so the tip is pointing inwards.

"Promise me you will tell him?" Alfred asks as he readies himself.

"One day." It may be fate but Alfred sets the bone as the lid of the Batmobile pops open, treating the men inside to Ravens scream of agony. Also hearing it is Diana and J'onn who are following close behind the car.

Alfred feels bruised as Raven relaxes her grip and settles for quiet sobbing on his shoulder. As the heroes emerge down the stairs they see Alfred hugging Raven while rocking her back and forth, telling her how brave she was. Alfred nods them away before he tries to get the fingers stabilized; the worried heroes make their way up to the computer.

"She sounded injured after we split the creature apart." Diana says quietly. "She was holding onto it while she told me how to split it." She answers the look Nightwing is giving her.

"We are sure that this is not because of her fight with Light?" Tim asks, he was certain that Light looked like one that had gone twelve rounds with a heavyweight boxer.

"Light is dead scared of her, whatever Raven did to him, was not a fight, it was a one-sided thrashing." Nightwing replies, his tone lets the other know he does not condone what she did.

"Don't defend him Richard, while you were away, he became worse, a lot worse than the man you once knew." Batman says as he brings up Arthur Lights file on the screen and opens the part with the newspaper features. Letting the headlines roll over the screen as he turns back to face them. "After breaking out of jail, five weeks after you left Jump City, he disappeared for half a year. When he returned and robbed a small store, he murdered the first officer on the scene. After that it got worse as he attacked, he disappeared as fast as possible, avoiding confronting Raven, much to the City's frustration. When Raven finally caught him four months after his first attack, Light was tied to the deaths of 7 officers and 6 bystanders, assault for the blinding of several spectators, kidnapping, torturing and raping of 4 women, and 7 girls, most of whom he killed afterwards. Raven had a brief stint of being popular in the city as she put him in a coma for a week. Nightwing, the man is a monster only kept in check by his fear of her." Nightwing's eyes go wide at the information, it barely sounded possible for one of the saddest excuses for a villain he had ever met to do all those things.

"It was…that maniac that forced me…to learn detective work." Raven admits as she is helped up the stairs onto the car platform by Alfred. "It was…what I did to him when we met…that kept him out of the chair…and what ended my only popularity streak…they claimed I created him." Batman gets out of his chair letting Alfred guide Raven into it.

"Sister, are you ok?" Diana asks in a concerned tone, the sight of the immobilized fingers and bandaged hands overrules the thoughts she has of what would happen if she ever found Light alone.

"Five broken fingers, but I must say she handled it like a champ." Alfred says proudly. "But I am worried about the tissue damage."

"It will heal…when I get some rest." Raven waves him off. "J'onn I hope you can wait till tomorrow before we do anything."

"It can." J'onn replies with a small smile.

"So how did you get injured?" Tim asks.

"Didn't know…the thing would literally blow apart as we split it…think of it as holding onto a grenade or something." Raven replies with half closed eyes.

"What's on your mind Nightwing?" Bruce asks as he spots the thinking man.

"I'm wondering, if there has been a major jail break in Jump City? I remember most of those we met tonight being frozen when we took down the Brotherhood. But we heard from Cyborg that, he, Raven and Superman apprehended Gizmo in Metropolis, and now we see those six showing up here. Not counting Slade's appearance as well." Batman nods at the theory.

"Well if there has and those three have made it across country in the meantime, it is too late to intervene. We will look into it tomorrow. Alfred will you show Diana a guestroom, and a shower?" Batman asks, noting the Amazon had crusting bits of goo all over her.

"Of course Master Wayne and Mr. Jones?" The elderly butler motions for at the Martian.

"I will only require a suitable place to stand." J'onn replies, Alfred nods, guessing the alien has strange sleeping habits.

"Very well, Miss Diana, if you will follow me?" Alfred motions for the Amazon to follow him up the stairs.

"Umm, guys, what about her?" Tim asks as he points at Raven, who has fallen asleep in the chair.

"Nightwing, will you take her upstairs?" Bruce asks with a smirk.

"Umm, she's slept down here before you know?" Nightwing counters, not wanting to be the one potentially angering her by waking her, something Beastboy had shared with them all.

"Not in a chair." Bruce counters, knowing from experience that the chair is going to give back pains. Richard sighs before walking over to the sleeping woman, gently putting her arms together and wrapping her in her cloak before slipping his arms under her neck and knees. Strangely, for Richard, she doesn't stir as he lifts her and begins heading towards the stairs.

"They look good together." Diana mentions to Bruce as they follow Richard up.

"They do." Bruce confirms.

"Like another pair present." Tim chips in behind them, getting a fake cough out of Bruce and a smirk out of Diana.

Moving up to the second floor after bidding J'onn goodnight and giving him directions for some chocolate chip cookies. First Tim disappears into his room then Bruce down the hall where his room is, Richard pushes the door open to Ravens room as Diana and Alfred continue down the hall to hers. Richard finds the room, a mess, strewn across the bed is at least ten dresses, including the one Raven wore at the dinner and the floor is a mine field with shoes, Richard remembers how many stores he and Alfred went into to get them all, except the pair of gladiator type sandals standing neatly near the bed, he doesn't remember those. Walking carefully around the bed to the far side, Richard deftly avoids stepping on any of the shoes. Before putting Raven down, he notes she is snuggling closer to him in her sleep; part of him wants to stay like this, but he shushes that part figuring if Raven wanted to she would say so. Tucking her into bed before he makes his way out, taking a look back at her before closing the door, not knowing he is being observed by the Amazon Princess from further down the hall who smiles to herself.

Later that night, quite unlike him, Bruce wakes up for no reason. Finding it hard to fall back asleep, he heads for the bathroom for a glass of water. After his thirst is sated he takes a look down the hall where the two women are sleeping, noting Dina's door is slightly open. You don't get the title of the world's greatest detective for not being insatiably curious, and Bruce is just that, as he creeps down the hall way and takes a quick peek inside. The Alfred in his head yell's complaints about decency being violated and manners being thrown out the window, but he goes largely unheard. The quick peek only reveals Diana, fast asleep, facing away from the door with parts of her naked back exposed and one slender arm lying on top of her. Part of Bruce is not surprised that she sleeps with her silver bracelets on, something Bruce suspects is common amongst her people, but Diana's are of course a weapon as much as her body. Bruce slips away from the sight, absent mindedly wondering if the other Amazon in the house is also taking up that habit, assuming she hasn't removed hers since she came back. Not knowing his emotions towards the princess, is stirring that other Amazon from her sleep, grumbling slightly, she sighs, content that there really is something between the bat and the maiden.

In another part of the house, a green Martian leans back in a chair with a book and a box of cookies, while wondering about the natures of the people sleeping above him. As a member of a telepathic race, the concept of hiding ones feelings and thoughts about others is still strange to him. He had read many times, and heard from many people that Diana is highly attractive to many humans and humanoid off-worlders. Personally he doesn't understand why, but he has figured out that it is because his people, as natural shape shifters, place little value on one's outward appearance. His own people placed greater value on one's mind and the structure of the thoughts going through it, J'onn's own long-dead wife had the most beautiful patterns in her thoughts. As he had observed several times, the other psychics he knows also have patterns in their thoughts, but the fewest non-psychic have any like them, which is why he can read them so easily. His own people were raised with their powers and had millennia of teachings at their disposal to train them in the use of their minds, the humans with the gift have had to make their own way and therefore never have the detailed patterns J'onn remembers from his own people. Dr. Fate has thought patterns that are highly detailed, but J'onn has learned from him that most of his powers come from the helmet he wears. Raven is a different matter; her thoughts are ordered and sheltered, which J'onn guesses is to keep her emotions in check. But that is only one reason why he finds her fascinating, he has encountered several beings he is incapable of reading but that has been mainly due to natural resistance, which the subject is usually unaware of. With Raven it is a different matter, she is very much aware of what is going on in her mind and that unlike the one with natural resistance, J'onn believes that if Raven wanted to, she could lobotomize any trespassers in her head at will. And that if she hadn't wanted to, he would never have gotten as far as he did when he searched her, he holds the seemingly easy ejection of himself as proof to this. Part of him is a little worried about a part of that incident, that she willed his body to change shape; that was a first for him. His musings about human behavior and the coming encounter keeps him thinking till the morning comes, the book in his hands completely forgotten, but the box of cookies does not make it thought the night.


	31. Hawk Hunt

The next morning they are all gathered for breakfast, J'onn politely nibbling at his bread, his metabolism still struggling with meal from last night and his absentminded consumption of twenty cookies during the night. Besides J'onn, everyone is sitting in morning robes around the table on the balcony, Raven having found one amongst her new wardrobe and Diana having borrowed one till her armor comes out of the wash. The conversations are kept light between them, Richard, J'onn and Tim absentmindedly watching Raven using her powers to fulfill the functions her hands were now incapable of. Richard had asked if she wanted help, to which she had just glared at him, Diana and Bruce had smirked at that.

"So Rae, can I ask where you got the sandals from?" Richard the detective had spent most of his morning wondering about those, failing again and again to remember buying them. Raven looks up at him with her mouth full, deliberately chewing slower because he's interrupting her.

"Went into town and traded one of the other pairs for them." She replies after finishing, Richard raises an eyebrow, he was sure they all would have been to her liking.

"Umm, can I ask why?"

"Richard, there were 27 pairs of shoes in the room you got me, and there are 26 in there now that I can't walk in." She states flatly.

"Wrong size?" Richard asks, Raven shakes her head. "What then?" Richard continues.

"Ever seen me in high heels?" Raven counters, Richard shakes his head slowly, dreading what is bound to come. "Neither have I." Richard sighs, it had never dawned on him that Raven had never worn anything other than her boots when he was out. Or that she could consider heels a danger to move around in, which she does.

"I do believe the phrase; 'I told you so.' Applies here." Alfred adds as he emerges from the house with a rolled up newspaper, referring to his cautioning that the heeled shoes should be balanced out with other kinds but he had been overheard. "The morning paper Sir." Alfred hands Bruce the paper, who rolls it out taking a look at the front page.

"Seems you and J'onn have taken the front page." Bruce says showing Diana and the rest of them the paper the head line reading.

**Justice League Apprehends Bank Robbers**

A picture beneath the headline shows the frozen and unconscious monsters with Diana standing with a foot on Cinderblock, and J'onn standing in the background with his cape wrapped around him. Diana takes the paper out of his hands and begins reading aloud.

"Late last night, the steps outside the Gotham First National Bank bore witness to the battle between the two Justice Leaguers; Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter and a gang of robbers consisting of Dr. Light, Control Freak and Mad Mod along with a combined version of Cinderblock, Overload and Plasmus all usually associated with Jump City's underworld. Having taken down the human villains first, the fight with the combined monsters broke out into the street where it lasted several minutes, before Wonder Woman struck a decisive blow, splitting the monster in three. During the battle Dr. Light was mysteriously found at an alley mouth in a catatonic state. Both heroes deny involvement of the so-called Batman." Bruce smirks at the last part and gets the paper back to read the full article.

"If I know the newspapers right, they will say it was either me or J'onn that took down Light." Bruce adds.

"Do you want to deny it?" Raven asks.

"No, keeps them scared." Bruce replies. "How are your hands?"

"Mending, but I haven't tried to heal them yet."

"You know Victor is going to freak if he finds out?" Richard asks.

"And I will try to calm him down." Raven counters.

"And this Victor is?" Diana asks.

"Victor Stone, you know him as Cyborg." Bruce mentions from behind the paper.

"Ah."

"Hmm, seems Slade will have company." Bruce notes while reading the paper.

"Light?" Tim asks.

"You're too young to smoke Tim." Richard jabs, getting an amused huff out of Diana, Bruce rolls his eyes behind the paper.

"Yes, according to the rapport he's being taken to Arkham for evaluation, Mad Mod as well."

"Guess you don't call yourself Mad Mod without a reason." Tim speculates.

"Master Bruce, Master Tim I'm afraid it's time." Alfred adds respectfully.

"Ah well, Diana as always it was nice seeing you under more casual circumstances." Bruce replies while kissing Diana's hand. "J'onn I trust you will let Alfred know if you need anything."

"Nice meeting you J'onn." Tim says as he waves and runs off, J'onn waves back.

"Well I guess I need to get back to the station, my shift at monitor duty will be starting in a few hours." Diana sighs, letting everyone know she is not thrilled by the prospect.

"You still haven't mentioned why I have so few of those?" J'onn asks.

"J'onn, you manned the spot for almost two years straight, we think it's only fair." Diana replies with a smile as she gets up."Anyways, I'll see you later and be nice to my sister. Richard, as usual it was a pleasure. And good luck sister." She says her farewells before heading into the mansion leaving the three at the table.

"I think she is considering you Richard." Raven mentions.

"That I know Rae, and I know it is only in case of Bruce burying his head in the sand." Richard defends.

"Still, it's a nice compliment from one of the most highly rated females on the planet." Richard smirks at Raven's remark.

"True, but I am used to gawking women."

"I am sure you are." Raven adds before going back to her floating cup of tea.

"Raven I will be waiting in the garden when you are ready." J'onn says after a few moments of silence before turning transparent and sinks through the floor.

Richard gets out of his seat before saying; "Well there is no rest for the wicked, Bruce wants me to look into the spreading of the Jump City hooligans."

"Have fun." Raven replies in a flat tone.

Richard smirks as he walks away. "You know I will." Raven enjoys the rest of her tea in silence and the early birds in the forest around the garden. After finishing her tea, she uses her powers to neatly stack everything on the table, leaving it for Alfred to move down into the kitchen, before she teleports to her room for a change of clothes.

"He's where?!" An agitated Hawkgirl asks the bespectacled prison guard behind the desk, the man seems to melt beneath her fuming before replying.

"News report this morning said he was delivered to Arkham after a botched robbery last night." Shayera sighs, Light was supposed to be the most pathetic of all the Titan villains, and here she finds out he had been at large for weeks, only to run head first into Batman, of all people. "May I ask why you wished to speak with him?"

"League investigation into Raven, from what we have read Dr. Light is the most prominent felon that has experienced the more excessive force from her part." Shayera replies shortly.

"I see. Well I can tell you she would not be the only one around here that will get, excessive, with Dr. Light. Look, if you want to, I can help you with your enquiry if you are staying in the city, I just got to clear it with the chief?" The man replies, Shayera thinks for a moment before agreeing a local will be the next best thing.

"Sure."

"Ok." The man gets up and walks in a door behind him leaving it open. "Sir, can I request a day off?"

"A day off, Foley? This had better be good." A deep grumpy voice replies.

"Well I have a Justice Leaguer out there asking questions about Raven." A pair of eyes peek through a venetian blind covering the window next to the door, taking a short look at Shayera before they disappear again.

"I see, it's about time one of them showed up." The chief mutters, loud enough for Hawkgirl to hear. "Permission granted Foley. I would do that myself, but I may be considered biased in the matter. And Foley."

"Yes, sir?" The man asks.

"Don't feed her any of that junk the press cooked up."

"I won't Sergeant Rancid." Foley replies.

"Dismissed." Rancid says letting Foley go out and meet Shayera.

"I will need to change clothes, I'll be right back." Foley informs her before disappearing down the halls. Shayera waits around 10 minutes before Foley comes back in a pair of blue canvas pants and a white t-shirt. "Ready when you are miss."

"Can I ask why your boss would be considered biased in this matter?" She asks, a second later the door to the sergeants door opens revealing a tall and broad shouldered man with long shaggy black hair and grey skin, his blue uniform and pants look too small for him.

"If you must know, Birdie. I used to be a real trouble maker around here before the other Titans left. After one incident, Raven made me see there was more to life than breakin' stuff just for kicks. After breaking my bike over my own head, it got me thinking; all I ever did was get out of jail, get a bike, go a bust a lot of stuff only to get put back in jail. Raven made me consider using my 'talents' for something useful, and here I am, trying to keep the 'uneducated' behind bars. Which, I might add is tougher that you might think, considering all the inventive minds we have around here." Sergeant Rancid explains.

"So you reformed and joined the force, admirable." Shayera notes. "So why is Foley not supposed to feed me junk from the press? And why 'finally'?"

"So you heard." Rancid notes as well. "Well because its 95% crap with no root to the truth. Like most people here still think I am a dangerous criminal, the press has yet to mention that I've had a career change. The other bit; I figured all you capes had a community of some sorts like the Titans did. So if you ask me, it's a bit late for the League to show up now, a year after she went missing. Anyways, if you manage to find her, tell her some of us in Jump would like her to come back. Oh, and say hello to Birdie Boy from me will ya?" Rancid waves before disappearing into his office. Foley coughs, noting Shayera staring at the door.

"He's like that around everyone, don't be offended. And he was referring to the old Robin. Also he considers Raven the only cool one of the old Titans." He explains.

"Damn straight!" Rancid yells from inside his office.

"Also his hearing is astounding when he wants to. So what is it you wish to know?" Foley asks, as he begins to walk out of the prison lobby with Hawkgirl in tow.

"The League has reason to believe Raven has resurfaced in Gotham, but we can't confirm it since all the 'witnesses' are, well, catatonic. Right now we need to confirm certain rumors and allegiances. So if you know what kind of person she was when she was here, that would help." Shayera explains as they walk out into the parking lot.

"Ah-ha, well that may prove difficult, the press tried to get her to talk for three years without luck. I guess we need to talk to the police first." They stop at a small Fiat Punto, Foley's car. "Umm, I guess you'd rather fly." Shayera agrees, her claustrophobia will wreck havoc if she actually gets into the car.

"So what are we doing?" Raven asks while getting into her meditation stance, floating a few feet above the grass, mirroring J'onn. They are both floating under a tree in the middle of the garden facing each other.

"I wish to do what we Martian's call the Ch'ar Men'nas, here on Earth the name is translated as; the Meeting of the Minds."

"So, it's like an introduction to get to know one another?"

"Yes, but the name is a poor translation, 'the Dance of Minds' is more accurate." Raven looks a bit surprised at this. "Let me explain; we will be in deep meditation while we wander each other's minds, but our bodies will react out here to what we see. As I have understood, you also posses shape changing abilities?"

"It is not a thing I can activate unconsciously." Raven replies matter-of-factly.

"Neither is mine, it is just something that happens during the dance. You seem uncomfortable about the concept?" J'onn notes.

"My mind is a very private thing to me, and there are parts of it where no one should ever go."

"I understand your concern, but the dance is meant to be conducted between two who know very little about each other. It was custom to perform it on Mars between people meant to spend time or rely on one other. It is not meant for the deep probing we can do, more like if you would have lunch with someone." J'onn explains while folding his hands beneath his cheek, leaning his elbows on his knees.

"So why don't we just do that?" Raven asks, wanting the reason why J'onn would choose as he had.

"I am still digesting dinner from last night; also it has been over a thousand years since I have had a chance to perform it. I realize you may not know this, but I am the last of my kind." Raven thinks about this for a moment, she is aware that J'onn is the last Martian, as a course of action she has kept herself updated on the League.

"I hope you realize you may be opening old wounds."

"The wounds never closed for me, I saw my family claimed by the invaders that took my world and my people. I was hoping with the dance, I can relive what it was like back then." Raven considers this for a few moments before answering.

"Ok, but I can't promise you this will be anything like it was for you back then, I am not a Martian after all." J'onn lets on a small smile at Ravens consent.

"It matters little as long as both are psychic and can shape shift. Before we begin, I will warn you as well there are areas of my mind that will be guarded as there are such in yours." Raven smirks back at him, guessing the alien also had things he considered highly private.

"Fair enough. So we just meditate and enter each other's minds while doing so?" She asks.

"Yes." Raven nods at his reply. "Shall we begin?"

"Sure." Both begin meditating, slowly feeling the surrounding world disappear before being replaced by different settings. From a open window in the mansion, Alfred, who has just returned, sets up a video camera as per J'onn's request.


	32. Ch'ar Men'nas, part 1

_Ravens mind:_

J'onn finds himself back on the rocky path he started from during his first visit, with the floating city above in the dark sky. As he looks at the city, he sees a pale blue figure coming towards him. Suspecting it may be important J'onn remains on the path, waiting for the figure to arrive. As the ghost comes closer, J'onn notes it is an old man with a beard and dressed in a monks robe, the ghost is smiling at him as it lands on the path before him.

"Greeting's stranger, I am Hemon, I will be your guide before you enter the city." The ghost greets, bowing slightly while folding his hands into his sleeves.

"I am J'onn J'onzz of Mars; I did not think I would need a guide?"

"Ah, but you do. The last time you were here you took the short journey by flying to the city, but there is more you need to see. Come with me and you will understand." Hemon motions for J'onn to follow him down the path.

"May I ask who you are?" J'onn asks the ghost of a man in front of him.

"My name is Hemon, once one of great Azar's priests, now I am the High Priest of Azerath in her stead." Hemon replies as they near a stone portal. J'onn remembers the statue he saw of Azar in the square.

"You hold her in great reverence?" J'onn asks, knowing the ghost has the same title as the woman, but speaks as if he is not her equal.

"Great Azar meant everything for Azerath. She led us from the world of violence to a place where we could live in peace; it was such a loss to us when she passed away." Hemon replies with sadness in his voice.

"Did Raven meet her?" Hemon smirks at J'onn's question.

"It was Azar that decreed that we bring Arealla, Raven's mother, to Azerath, as was it her that decreed that we would train Raven so that her father would not get to her. When Raven turned 7, Azar became her teacher until she passed away just three years later. Also, Azar made us follow certain rules around Raven and that she was except from our usual beliefs as pacifists." J'onn is familiar with the concept from Dove.

"You hurt her?" He asks, not wanting to jump to conclusions but he couldn't see why else Hemon would mention it.

"Not with any joy I assure you, but we had to, the risk was too great." He sighs. "Believe me, there were many that feared Raven would deliver Azarath to Trigon, because of her upbringing, when she left us. This is the first place you need to see, follow me, please." Hemon says before disappearing as he steps through the portal, J'onn follows a second later.

J'onn is surprised when he steps through; the world around him has changed, instead of the rocky path floating in space. He is now standing on a path of gravel surrounded by hills with pink grass, the sky above is that of a summer sunset. As he takes in the change, a strawberry floats by. J'onn is so taken aback by the scenery he almost misses the pink cloaked Raven lying with her against a tree with a huge smile plastered across her face, apparently enjoying the sun.

"Raven? I thought you were wandering in my mind?" J'onn asks confused, 'Raven' opens her eyes, apparently surprised at the voice. Her smile only seems to grow wider as she sees J'onn and Hemon.

"J'onn, Hemon you're here, hurray!" Raven yells at them as she jumps up, Hemon smiles at her while J'onn is even more confused, he is even more confused as Raven rushes them, giving J'onn a hug.

"Raven, are you well?" J'onn asks, not seeing Hemon suppressing his mirth.

"Oh course I am silly, I am just happy you are here." Raven replies with keeping up her hug, J'onn look over at Hemon to check if it just him that is finding all of this strange.

"I am sorry J'onn, Happy, I think J'onn will appreciate it if you let go of him?" Hemon asks, Happy just smiles at him before letting J'onn go.

"Happy?" J'onn asks.

"Yup that's me, well part of me, Happy as can be. Oh that rhymes!" Happy burst out in laughter at her own joke. J'onn looks to Hemon with an almost lost expression in his eyes.

"J'onn this is Happy as we call her, she represents everything Raven likes or makes her happy." Hemon introduces the laughing woman now rolling around on the ground in mirth.

"She is…an emotion?" J'onn asks, noticing the woman is not actually thinking independently, like Hemon, but fragmented like she is only a part of a greater puzzle.

"A pure, undiluted emotion. We will meet more like her when we move on, but look around you." Hemon waves his arm at the surrounding area. "This place, a part of Raven's mind, is where Happy holds sway; if we were to wander here we would see all the things that make Raven happy. The latest addition, I believe, is a Greek temple because she is happy having found a new place to call home. Beneath it I think there is a cave were the one with the pointed ears dwell." J'onn thinks for a moment, quickly linking the mention of pointed ears and caves.

"Batman is here as well?"

"Only as a fragment of the real man, this is the version that's made Raven happy, I think his acceptance of her has something to do with it." Hemon speculates.

"Yup, I put him and Diana on top of each other so they can keep flirting; it's fun when they do that." Happy mentions from the ground. "Hey you wanna see them?" She asks.

"Uhh…" J'onn manages before being cut off.

"Well here they come!" Happy points at a hill and over it comes Batman and Wonder Woman hand in hand and skipping along. This is the weirdest thing J'onn has seen yet.

_Meanwhile in J'onn's mind:_

Raven opens her eyes and finds herself in a place she has never seen before, except on photos; Mars. Another thing she notes is that her hands here are mended with no marks of the damage they have sustained in the real world. The ground beneath her is covered in red sand and rocks, in the distance the horizon is covered in a red dust cloud that reaches into the cream colored sky. As far as she can see in front of her, there is no sign of civilization, Martian or otherwise. Turning around herself she notes there is a hill behind her, deciding that it may be best to see if there is anything visible from its top, she floats up to it.

"Wow." Raven says, as the hill is revealed to be hiding a large city made mostly of grey stone, with many towers that have onion shaped tops scattered across the city. Some of them are connected by walkways others stand alone, surrounded by round buildings. There are open areas where green vegetation can be seen, something Raven didn't expect to see.

Letting herself float closer to the city Raven spots the green Martian's inhabiting the city, living their lives as J'onn remembered them. As Raven first sets foot on the ground, between two buildings, she notices the Martians look considerably different from what J'onn looks like, with their pointed heads, slender arms and legs along with the highlighted patterns on their chests, they look a lot more, well, alien. Studying them from the alley, Raven notes the ones she guesses are the males are generally taller and broader than the sleeker females. Arguing with herself for a moment about stepping outside or try and sneak around the place. She eventually decides to step out, based on the fact all Martians were telepaths and would sense her anyways if she tried to sneak around. Stepping out of the alley, she almost collides with a male Martian, only to have him pass through her like she was invisible or he was a ghost. Raven suddenly flooded with memories, J'onn's memories about him. His name was C'alr C'ann'z, he had a wife and child, worked as a garden tender; J'onn remembers spending many pleasant evenings with him and his wife. The last memory J'onn has of him, is seeing him being carried off by white figures while J'onn is busy providing cover-fire for a squad of other Martians.

"Memories…" Raven mutters, realizing all of the Martians she can see are vessels, containing J'onn's memories of individual Martians and his interactions with them. Raven tries touching a passing female, accompanied by a male, heading the other direction than C'alr. Again she is flooded by J'onn's memories; she was one of his teachers while J'onn was young, her great patience with her students was impressive and the sadness that filled J'onn when he heard of her passing in the initial landfall of the invaders. Raven pulls her hand back and floats into the air. _"I shouldn't be seeing these memories." _She notes internally, realizing she may already have overstepped J'onn's boundary. Felling nothing like anger or anything from him, she guesses he is busy insider her own mind. Focusing for a moment, she senses he is inside Happy's realm along with Hemon, J'onn is feeling confused. Raven can only guess Happy is pulling out all sorts of strange things for J'onn to see, leaving Hemon to explain them, or making a fool of herself.

Resigning herself to observing the Martians from a distance, Raven looks on with interest at the Martians as they go through their memorized lives. Some are relaxing, either meditating, asleep publicly or just enjoying whatever they are doing. Others are working, doing oddly manual things like building, tending to the vegetation or to the shops. One apparent food stand, Raven notes, is selling something that reminds her of Starfire's cooking. Her casually observing eyes are soon pulled towards a school of young Martians lead by a tall female, Raven notes how rowdy the children are as they near one of the flat buildings. She floats closer, interested enough to listen in on the class as the woman orders them all to halt before addressing them.

"Now youngsters, I want you all to be on your best behavior as we join the others." She says, to Raven's surprise, in English. The troupe groans before they enter the building, with Raven passing through the wall a second later, while mentally noting to be extra careful not to come into contact with any of the young ones, she does not want to share J'onn's last memories of them.

Inside the building is a large circular hall, the floor is sunk into the ground with three steps leading up to the slim area running along the walls. On the floor are, what Raven counts to, around fifty Martians floating a few inches off the ground, sitting in a semi circle facing a solitary figure standing near the wall, at the far end from the entrance, on a small platform. The group of children and their 'teacher', as Raven thought of her, find their places on the floor. They are apparently the last arrivals as the female at the far end speaks up when the last of them is seated.

"Welcome everyone, today we will begin with The Song of the Sky." There is a bit of movement from the assembly before they all settle down to remain quiet for a second, Raven wonders what is going to happen. After a few seconds pass, all of the males begin humming along the same tune; the rhythm is slow, like they are warming their voiced up. After a few rises and falls in the males humming, the women take over, singing the same tune but without words; their voices are high pitched compared to the deep bass of the men. Again after a few rises and falls in the song, the males join the females, their voices mixing together in the humming. To Ravens ears they are quite loud, since they all are in perfect synch with each other, she just notes this as the single figure at the far end begins singing in a language Raven doesn't understand, and everyone else lowers their humming to form the background rhythm. Raven just stands silently and listens, to her ears it sounds better than when Starfire tried singing. It could of course have been because Starfire only translated half of the lyrics to English which made it sound terrible.

Meanwhile in Metropolis, a certain green man enters the workshop with a vegetable sandwich for himself and a cup of coffee for his hardworking friend. He almost drops both as he sees the ship.

"Dude! You're almost finished?!" He hasn't seen the ship for days, partially on request from Victor to stay out and because he was beginning to get really bored so went out to explore Metropolis. Cyborg looks up from the open hatch near the rear engine.

"HA! You wish B. I may have the outer hull done, but there's still loads a calibrations needed and there's over half the instruments missing still." Garfield visibly deflates at Cyborg's admission.

"So you're not almost done." He sighs, Victor smirks before putting his head back in through the hatch.

"Nope, this is rocket science remember? Putting all the bits together is only half of it; the rest is making sure they all work, so we don't blow up when taking off." Victor explains, Beastboy in the mean time is putting down the coffee cup near the workstation.

"So how long do you expect this to take?"

"Well if everything is honkey-dory I guess it will take a week, longer if some of it ain't." Garfield sighs again at the estimation.

"Vic, not to be rude or anything, but can't you wheel someone in to speed things up? Star may not have a week." He asks, Victor is silent for a moment before answering.

"Gar to me this is personal, always has. If I let everyone have a look at my prints, who knows how many like me will be walking around. I know it doesn't look like it, but if you know how, you can make copies of me by looking at the prints for this ship, or my car for that matter. You know how angry I got when I found out Brother Blood had stolen my designs."

"But is your privacy worth more than Starfire?" Beastboy asks somewhat offended, Cyborg stops working to look at his friend with a stern look in his eyes.

"No it ain't, but you misunderstand me. I mean look at me and remember what Blood did, imagine someone like Luthor getting his hands on my design and what he can do with it. Blood and Chang made cheap copies of me, someone like Luthor can probably make better and on a larger scale. Gar, Star is important to me too, but I can't leave my prints for anyone to see. And I don't trust the League to keep them out of thieving hands, since they once lost a giant suit of armor to a small team that infiltrated the satellite." Cyborg explains, hoping Gar will understand. And he does but it still leaves two questions for Garfield.

"So what about the engine? And the prints Raven admitted to use?" He asks while crossing his arms.

"The engine is safe, because I designed it from scratch and it has nothing to do with my body's design. And I left the other designs in the tower for Raven to keep safe, in case I needed hard copies."

"You didn't seem upset when she said she had used them, without asking you." Victor smirks at Garfield and his observation.

"I admit I was surprised, but she had helped me put the car back together so many times that I would be surprised if she couldn't do it in her sleep. Besides I really doubt it would have turned into a copy of my baby. She wouldn't get it to run anyways, unless she made some modifications to the design, which she did notice. She told me she was planning on letting her powers fuel it and that the colors would be different." Garfield sights at Victor and his explanation.

"Wish Rae was here, you'd get this thing done in half the time."

"You're probably right about that Gar, wonder what she's doing now?" Victor speculates out loud.

_Jump City:_

"Diana would probably have killed some of those journalists for writing some of that." Hawkgirl says as she and Foley walk down the stairs of the Jump City Library. She had requested, sternly, to see why the press around here was so bad. Right now she is remembering the time the founders had been slammed in the press; the comments about the Princess and her attire were not taken politely back then.

But Rancid had been correct; Shayera noted with some reluctance, 95% of everything in the tabloids written about Raven was too outlandish to be true. While she knows Raven is half demon, the stories about wild orgies, fiendish cults, vampirism and human sacrifices, were too farfetched to even have chance of being true. Usually they lacked any hard evidence or were based on rumors of the either attention hungry or drunk, who claimed to have seen a shadow or something. Shayera is no Batman or Question, but she still used to be an intelligence officer and could see that Raven had been turned into an open source for the tabloids, freeing the journalists from actually do any journalist work, Clark would be offended.

"Some of us, on the force, think she only read the stuff for two or three months then got her news from other sources, assuming she ever read it." Foley replies. "It got really bad after some of the protests caught the attention of a TV-preacher; he tried to exorcise her before she chased him off the island. That's at least what she told us, the priest delivered a different opinion on the matter which leads to much the junk you have just read."

"And the real newspapers jumped right on the bandwagon?" Shayera asks walking with Foley down to the parking lot.

"Only initially, it was a dead period for them. After the Titans brought in most of their opponents, they had to settle with more regular stuff. When the tabloids got into the swing, the major news papers jumped, hoping it would sell papers for them, when the rambling continued, they went back the real news. Say, that reminds me, the Jump City Herald has its offices just down the street from here." Foley says while motioning down a side street, at a skyscraper made of glass and steel.

15 minutes later they have a meeting with the editor in chief, who can spare 10 minutes of his time, who turns out to be the same dark skinned man who was on Titan's Island when Robin announced the disbanding. The brushed aluminum name plate in his office reads Harold Turner; he quickly asks them to just call him Mr. Turner.

"So what can I help the Justice League with?" He asks from behind the desk at the seated Foley and Shayera.

"I'm looking into the disappearance of Raven, the League may have found her, but we are looking to confirm certain facts and allegiances she may have had while here." Shayera says, careful not to contradict herself in front of Foley. Turner smiles broadly from behind his desk.

"Ah, well as you may have found out, hard facts about her are nearly impossible to get." Shayera nods at him in confirmation. "And as far as allegiances go, I doubt anyone in this city can tell you anything useful. The tabloids had the island under siege for almost three years with nothing coming out of it. So as far as we know, she lived on that island totally alone for three years." He explains.

"You never tried going over there? Or try and get an interview out of her?" Shayera asks.

"I tried personally requesting one a few times by telephone, but was politely denied. Last time I was on the island was when I covered Robin's announcement of the disbanding. That was back when I was just another reporter. Each time she denied I was reminded by what Robin told us; 'Raven will be unavailable for comments, until she chooses otherwise.'"

"You obviously don't believe some of your colleagues and their theories." Shayera notes, the man politely coughs into his hand.

"I would not call them that, but no, they just print something, hoping one day they may be correct."

"So why do you think she never talked with any of you to dismiss any of it?" Turner smiles again knowingly.

"What eventually lead me to my current seat here; I once wrote an article about Raven. I went around and asked all sorts of people about her; Goth-kids, supposed mystics, religious figures, psychiatrists, the lot. The kids thought of her as cool, but they couldn't name anyone who could say she was one of their community. The mystics, mostly fake's by the way, all agreed she was the real deal with her powers but none of them had any contact with her either. Some of the fake ones actually feared meeting her, in case they would get exposed by her. I asked the local heads of church about the rumors regarding her supposed heritage; I was genuinely surprised when some of them came out in favor of her. They said, that if the rumors were true, then she was showing no signs of them being so and that from what they knew, she was fighting valiantly for a spot in Heaven. As one of them said, 'the Lord forgives all those who repent their sins, even if that sin was to be born'. Lastly I went to a well respected psychiatrist from Metropolis, where I asked her to analyze Raven, based on her actions. The good doctor came back to me after a week with the conclusion that; Raven may be troubled, disliked her own appearance, which explains the cloak, but is otherwise either very private, or shy. Her only note of concern was that Raven's solitary existence may prove damaging to her; it certainly wouldn't do her any favors. Personally I blame the tabloids, if they had lain off; maybe she would have talked to some of us professionally." Shayera, hanging onto Turners every word, notes the last part.

"She talked to some under other circumstances?"

"Well, she did save a few from their own stupidity. And, personally, I met her once while walking home a late night, she recognized me from the disbanding. I don't know how, since none of us there saw her." He says with a smile. "Anyways, she said she was out enjoying a night walk and I got to ask her a few questions, off the book mind you. She let me know she was a very private person, even the Titans hardly ever saw her room on the inside, and they lived with her for four years."

"I am beginning to think it was only a small group of people that disliked her." Shayera notes.

"That will be correct." Turner replies. "Many of us were concerned in the beginning when she was handed the entire city to protect, but after seeing some of the things she did to some of the people she bought in, some began to fear her. But secretly I think most were quite happy with having her around, our own guardian that kept all the real baddies away or in jail, even made a few of them reconsider their way of life." Turner says sending a knowing look at Foley.

"So what about Dr. Light?" Hawkgirl asks, knowing the 10 minutes are almost up.

"Before her battle with the lizard, he was at once her greatest triumph and her downfall. We don't know how, but when the Titans split, something just clicked for the doctor. He went from pathetic villain-wannabe to monster and I am almost sure if the police had found him before her, he would have been shot instead of hospitalized. Raven was the hero of the hour until he woke up to a psych evaluation, were the city found out he had been more mentally unstable ever since his first meeting with Raven, years ago. In an instant Raven went from hero to being blamed for creating the monster in the first place. The tabloids got new wind in their sails and we were back to where we started. I have spoken with a few doctors who said, Light was always a monster, we just never saw it until then. They backed this up by showing me some of his medical records dated before the Titans formed, but of course my voice went unheard at the time." Turner shrugs.

"So what can you tell me about the last fight she had?" Hawkgirl asks.

"Devastating, much of the city was ruined, many lives were lost that day. It all began when Titans Tower exploded and this huge dragon emerged from the ruins, Raven was soon there to engage it. Much of the battle was fought in the skies; the destruction was caused by the dragon's flames. We on the ground could hear the thing talk to her as they fought. It was strange, it kept going on and on about them having something like relationship in the past, either Raven didn't reply or we just couldn't hear her. Personally I think it was mocking her. The battle raged for over 6 hours before the dragon did something to her, since we could hear her scream. But apparently whatever it did, it backfired. After a pause in the fighting for a few moments, Raven apparently turned up the juice and savagely beat the thing into the stairs at City Hall, before she blew a hole in its chest large enough to drive a car through. The aftermath was terrible; most agreed that it was because of Raven's presence that the dragon came, but again, most agreed that Raven having killed it was a good thing. Some were happy she disappeared, some were sad, even the old Titan's came back to look for her. And as you know, no one has seen her since. Anyway I think our time is up." He finishes off by looking at his watch. "I don't suppose you can speak of your own findings?" He asks with a smirk, knowing he was not getting anything; he's have to try the Flash or one of the other less tightlipped.

"Not until we can confirm it. But thank you for your time Mr. Turner. But one more question, do you think the city would be happy or worried if Raven turned up again?" Shayera asks as she gets up.

"I can't answer that on behalf of the city. But personally I would appreciate her coming back, the crime rate has only increased since she left, and I am still hoping she will talk to me one day." He adds the last part with a smile as he shakes hands with Shayera first, then Foley before showing them out.

"You seem confused?" Hemon asks J'onn as they near the exit in Happy's realm, another stone portal. Hemon had noted J'onn had been confused ever since they met the dancing Batman and Wonder Woman, they had since lost Happy when they chanced upon a table where the other Titans were seated sharing a pizza.

"The things I've seen here just seem strange to me." J'onn replies.

"Just remember, whatever you see here while on this journey, is what the real versions mean to Raven. Like some of the people you have seen here will be seen again, just under a different light. Actually I will warn you, the next one is what makes Raven sad or timid; you will most likely also see some of Raven fears." Hemon says as they step through the portal. The scenery changes back again to the rocky path and the dark sky, J'onn is surprised when stone walls rise out of the ground around them sealing them in. "Fear not, this happens every time, now we only have to wait for her to lead us through." Hemon says in a calm voice, shortly after a grey cloaked Raven rises out of the ground, she looks sad.

"I'm sorry Hemon." Timid says while looking at her feet.

"Don't be child, we only wish to pass though your maze." Hemon says while smiling at her.

"Ok, follow me." Timed says softly before turning and starts walking into the maze. Hemon leans closer to J'onn to whisper to him.

"Don't mind her and try not to interfere with anything you see, whatever it might be." J'onn nods at the warning, before he lengthens his strides to walk next to Timid.

"Why are you sad?" J'onn asks.

"I am a bad person." Timid replies without looking at him. They pass a corridor where J'onn spots a window on the far wall, through it he sees and image of the demonic Raven striding confidently down what looks like hill of bodies. J'onn notes that a familiar black cape and a chest with a red and yellow S on it sticks out of the pile.

"Why do you say that?"

"I was only born so I could be a means to end this world." Timid replies without breaking stride or looking up.

"Do you still believe that, even after you defeated your father?" J'onn continues as they turn a corner.

"Yes." Timid replies quietly. "A part of me is still him, I am still Trigon's child." As they pass another sideway, J'onn catches another glimpse of an image. This time of the demonic Raven, with a gigantic four eyed face with red skin behind her. J'onn speculates that the images may be generated by Timid as a point of emphasis. J'onn notes Hemon walking up behind him

"Ask her what she fears." Hemon suggests, Timid doesn't seem to notice, even if she is walking right besides J'onn.

"What do you fear?" J'onn asks realizing that it is worth knowing what she fears, Timid sights in a defeated gesture.

"I fear much, I fear what I am." An image on the wall ahead of them shows the demonic Raven again. "I fear rejection." Several images appear along the walls as they walk, one where the 3 other Titans J'onn knows and another are seen throwing Raven out of a T shaped structure before slamming the door shut. Another is showing Raven in the midst of saving a group of people, only to be attacked by them. J'onn remembers being briefed about the last image; it shows Zatanna pointing her wand at the viewer, Wonder Woman leaping over the table from the far end along with Hawkman on one side and Green Lantern between Diana and Zatanna while Batman stands motionlessly at the back.

"The last two are memories." Hemon notes behind J'onn.

"I fear going mad and what that may bring." Timid continues, ignoring Hemon. Down a corridor, J'onn spots **a** Raven, J'onn enforces to himself, sitting on the ground in a straight jacket babbling away about something she has seen. An image on the wall shows Raven being dragged into Arkham Asylum by two orderlies with the Titans, the strange girl J'onn saw along with the other Titans, Batman and Wonder Woman looking on with sad expressions. A last image on the walls shows the demonic Raven busy gorging herself on the remains on someone, digging into the remains with her claws.

"I fear being alone in a world where no one will care about me." The image appearing this time shows Raven sitting on a barren island looking at a city surrounding her, J'onn gets the impression this Raven has been confined to the island by the city. Timid drops her head a bit as she speaks again; "I fear some of the monks." J'onn guesses it is Hemon's presence that makes her stoop. The accompanying image is one of a young Raven, J'onn guesses she is around 6 years old, being slapped and hit by a group of monks while trying to crawl away from them. "Sorry Hemon." J'onn stops and gives Hemon a hard stare, who looks at the ground in shame but keeps walking.

"It is us that apologize, in a way we hope to redeem our actions by being here as guides and offer support when it is needed." Hemon says without looking at J'onn, not proud of his past being displayed on the wall. "We are aware what had we done this on Earth, Raven would have been taken from us and we would risk incarceration. We are not proud of it, but we had to do it, for all to live Raven had to suffer. We know Raven has forgiven us and has shown us gratitude, but we have yet to forgive ourselves for this."

"We're here." Timid says from up ahead before placing a hand on the wall, the unseen bricks of the wall quickly disappear leaving the way clear. As the pair walks to the opening, Timid speaks again; "I fear one more thing. That all what you have seen, are true and that I deserve it all." Hemon motions for J'onn to follow him out. Before exiting completely J'onn catches a glimpse of a group of people emerging around the corner.

"That's her! Get her!" Someone yells, Timid's eyes go wide before she panics and flees back they way they came. J'onn turns to confront the mob but is pushed aside by it; before he hits the ground outside he spots the familiar shapes of the League, Nightwing and one of the Titans amongst the mob otherwise consisting of civilians, monks and amazons. As his back collides with the ground he hears a scream coming from the inside the labyrinth; Timid's. J'onn bolts upright and races forward, only to collide with the labyrinth wall that closes the opening in an instant. J'onn bangs his fists on the unyielding wall a few times before Hemon puts his hand on J'onn's shoulder.

"There is nothing you can do here, Timid exists in misery and fear, this happens to her regularly. If it makes you feel better, no one here wants the last part to come true." Hemon tries to sound comforting for the large Martian who just sighs and looks down at the ground between his feet at the unyielding wall.


	33. Ch'ar Men'nas, part 2

"_Wonder what the camera is standing there for?"_ Richard wonders, eyeing the tripod mounted device pointing out into the garden. Looking out of the windows he is passing, he spots a strange sight. He blinks few times to make sure It's is real; in the garden is what looks like two pieces of modeling putty, one a pale green and one completely black, leaping around each other and the garden. He watches as the green one touches down in one of the flower beds, Richard notes somewhat relived that the flowers all appear untouched as the putty takes off again, Alfred would throw a fit if the garden was damaged.

"They have been going like that for the last hour, Master Richard." Alfred says quietly while appearing out of a door. Richard looks up at him in surprise.

"What are they doing?"

"I haven't the foggiest clue sir." Alfred replies while checking the image being recorded and the cable connecting the camera with the recorder besides the TV.

"And what are you doing?" Richard asks, knowing Alfred pried a lot into his, Tim's and Bruce's lives and conversations, a camera however would be a new bold step for him.

"Mister Jones requested for his session with Miss Raven recorded; he said he wished to see the result of what they are doing now."

"You mean he is not seeing any of this now?" Richard asks while looking out at the pair, he notes offhandedly that J'onn is somewhat more fluent in his movements than Raven.

"Apparently they are walking each other's minds and are quite unaware of what they are doing now. Mister Jones explained it is a tradition from his home." Alfred explains while making minor adjustments to the camera, after finishing he faces Richard. "Is there anything I can get you Master Richard?" Richard looks up at him with a blank stare, having forgotten what he was doing.

Meanwhile inside J'onn's mind, Raven has come to the conclusion she is witnessing the Martian version of choir singing, with the solo's being sung by the female. The Martians had moved through the Song of the Sky, onto the Song of the Ground and were now finishing the Song of Fire. She still can't understand the words being sung, but the melodies seemed to match the elements in the song titles. The Sky Song was airy and light, a bit like music played in a store. The Ground Song had felt like a working song fitted to be played in a mine or during similar hard labor with its heavy and slow rhythm. This last song is fast and has the underlying currents of fear. Raven had during the course of the songs tried to see if there was anything else going on between the Martians, but had come up empty handed. She guesses there either isn't anything, J'onn doesn't remember anything happening or it is deliberately kept hidden. For all Raven knows, this might be deeply private to J'onn.

As the Fire Song ends many of the Martians voices fade from the humming and singing to muttering before everyone falls silent as the female singer holds up her hands, gesturing for silence. "We give thanks to you all for participating today, to H'rommer for all things and to the Great Spirit watching over us today." Raven body paralyzes as every Martian in the room turns to face her, or rather they look at the spot she is standing in, but no one makes eye contact with her.

Ravens mind races; "_They must be able to sense me somehow, but not see me_."

"We give our thanks to you, Great Spirit for blessing us with your presence." The female continues, with muttered echoes and nods coming from the floor.

At this, Raven tries to express happiness through thoughts before slipping through the wall, not wanting to be accidentally mistaken for something she is not. _"I have to be more careful from now on, I must have been moved by the songs, let my guard down. Or their awareness is greater after gatherings like this."_ Appearing far above the city, Raven ponders if it really was her, the group detected, or if it was a memory and she accidentally stood in the right place.

_Wayne Tower:_

"I'm telling you Bruce, the banks are screaming for our new security systems after last night." Lucius Fox says happily, as he places a pile of papers on Bruce Wayne's desk, who smiles while looking at the pile sideways, counting 13 potential customers.

"Well let's just hope we don't get too many of those events that make them needed." He says while patting the morning paper lying in front of him, showing Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter battling the assembled monster on the front page picture. "It's not like Gotham needs Metropolis' problems." Lucius coughs into his hand.

"Yeah, they have giant space monsters, we have psycho killers and now something that jumps those people and others that make miracles happen." Bruce smirks at Lucius; he guesses many Gothamites are discussing the latest events happening in the city. Catatonic villains turning up and now a strange figure that cures wounded cops. But he also knows he will soon have to put restrictions on Raven in regards what she can do while in the city before it becomes too big to blame on Batman.

"I'm sure it's just Batman with a new toy or something." Bruce reassures Lucius. "But I think we could use more like this one." He says while opening the paper on page 8, showing a peculiar article.

**Miracle at Gotham Memorial**

_Late last night police officer Melissa Cole was brought to the hospital after being blinded by the super-villain; Dr. Light while trying to apprehend the villain at a burglary in the Tetson Jewelry Store. Doctors at Gotham Memorial claimed Officer Cole's eyes would never recover from the attack. Later that night, a figure was discovered administering an unknown form of treatment to Officer Cole before being chased away by an orderly and the victim's mother. Much to the doctor's confusion, Officer Cole has made a complete recovery of her eye sight. Clarissa Cole, mother of Melissa, claims the figure to have been an angle. At this point no confirmation or explanation of this has been issued._

Below the article is a sketch of an artist impression of a description of the figure, Bruce notes it is made by one used to drawing the many impressions of himself as Batman. As Raven appears taller, with visible lines in her cloak and in general looking more sinister than benevolent as her white eyes is the only feature under the hood looking over her right shoulder with an extended arm ending in crooked fingers.

"Come on Bruce, I know you well enough, that you don't believe in the tabloid material." Lucius admonishes after reading the article.

"But what if it happened? I recall the papers said something similar happened while the police took down some thug in a bust down at the docks." Bruce counters, having read the article several days after the event, when Raven was away on Themyscira. What Raven hadn't found while at Roman's employ came up when the police found a hidden basement with piles of extra weapons, drugs and other contraband in it.

"Well if it looked like that and is benevolent, I'd say the style is mixed up. Not something I'd run to for help, that's for certain." Lucius says while taking a closer look at the picture.

"People used to say the same about Batman." Bruce adds.

"Many are still undecided about him Bruce, anyways I think it's another meta if you ask me." He says while getting back on subject. "But I don't get why they dress up like that if they are helpful."

"Who knows? In this city bright colors and capes are usually insane or out to prove something." Bruce shrugs, knowing Lucius would be having Batman and Robin in mind. "Besides if this person can do more than cure people's injuries, I'm sure he, or she, would not want to be recognized or followed home."

"I mean, if you are benevolent and can help cure people, why try to look like Batman or the Scarecrow is your tailor? I know my girl would be jumping into a nurse uniform or something similarly bright if they had powers like that…and I would be locking her in her room." Lucius continues with a stern look, silencing his employer before he can make a joke. "Guess it must be the city that attracts them, the strange types that is." Lucius speculates as he puts down the paper.

"Must be." Bruce ends, with a knowing smirk on his face. _"Or creates them." _He adds internally.

_Raven's Mind:_

"You are troubled by what you've seen." Hemon notes at J'onn who has been quiet since they left the labyrinth; they are now in a dark forest of dead trees. Hemon himself is a bit puzzled as they have not encountered the inhabitant of the area yet which he had been expecting.

"My apology; I was just thinking what would have been the result if Raven had been brought up amongst my own people. We had many thousands of years in experience with how the mind works." Hemon nods at J'onn's speculation.

"I am sure we must appear like savages to you in how we went about it, but I wish to remind you, the only other person we knew who possessed these kinds of talents was Azar herself and it was her decree to do as we did."

"I understand, you did what you could with what you had. I am just wondering if Raven would have grown up to be the same person if she had access to Martian knowledge. May I ask how you fractured her emotions like this? Even amongst my people only a rare few could manifest their emotions inside their minds in this fashion, and those could only manage particularly strong emotions?" J'onn asks while thinking of an ancient Martian legend which had more to do with the presence of Azerath than it did the emotional manifestations he was meeting.

"I am sure she would have turned out very different, had she been raised by your people or if we had your knowledge. Your question, however, I cannot answer, only Azar and Raven herself can. We were all equally surprised when we encountered them here." Hemon replies.

"You do not teach her this?" J'onn asks.

"We know very little of the training Raven went through under Azar, only what little Azar herself would tell us. Only that Raven was doing well, and her assurance was enough for us." Hemon says as they walk out into a clearing.

The ground before them sinks to form a natural arena; Hemon is surprised to see there is an audience on the slopes, consisting of Leaguers, Titans, Amazons and others. In the pit itself, a green cloaked figure is dancing an elegant dance amongst four statues with four arms that are trying to disembowel her with their swords. "This is new." Hemon notes in a surprised tone. As the pair watches, the green cloaked figure strikes one of the statues in the chest with her bare hand, turning much of the statues midsection into dust before it vanishes and the cheer rises from the crowd. "J'onn, the one in green down there is Timid's opposite number, Raven's self-confidence or Bravery as we have come to call her. Be careful around her, as she tends to become violent if she has a cause. And whatever you do, let her handle anything that may show up." Hemon cautions before letting J'onn follow him through the crowd as Bravery jumps up, grabs the head of another of her assailants, hand stands on it for a second before twisting herself around to snap the statues head off its shoulders before she lands on her feet behind it.

"She is reckless?" J'onn asks while spotting a version of himself sitting in the crowd, flanked by a red headed Amazon on his left and the orange skinned female, he has come to think of as the missing Titan, on his right. Everyone cheers wildly as Bravery lifts one the two remaining statues off the ground with her bare hands before hurling it at the remaining statue, demolishing both.

"Very, she is the reason why Raven dares to live on, where Timid would have Raven end her life. On the other hand, Bravery is also the voice inside Raven that welcomes impossible odds, and that wants to have a fight against anyone to test herself. Thankfully Raven's balance between Timid and Bravery is very stable." Hemon replies while beginning to applaud Bravery along with the rest of the crowd, motioning for J'onn to do the same.

Bravery turns around to soak up the audience's cheering with her arms raised with clenched fists like a boxer that has just won a major victory. She seems to notice the pair in the crowd and flies up to them after soaking up the glory for about half a minute, the crowd seems to disappear one by one as Bravery leaves the arena.

"Hoo-Yaah! Did you see it?" Bravery asks excitedly as she lands with a smile on her face.

"Very impressive Bravery, I see you have done some remodeling." Hemons says, while slowing his clapping down, J'onn follows his lead.

"Yup, got tired of hunting monsters in the woods, and this allows me to have an audience. So what brings you here? You're giving him the tour?" Bravery asks while motioning at J'onn.

"I am, and we usually need an escort through your woods."

"Sure, I'll cya through. Might be a demon or something on the way." Bravery agrees with no worry about such a meeting, J'onn guesses she is actually looking forwards to such a confrontation. "Say aren't you supposed to one of the strong ones?" She asks while eyeing J'onn, a strange glint appears in her eyes that J'onn cant place.

"I am afraid my capabilities are not the same here as they would be elsewhere." J'onn replies, guessing Bravery might either be encouraged to pick a fight with him for fun or feel it necessary to establish a pecking order. In any case potentially engaging the emotions in their own realms will be foolish to say the least. She seems to relax with his explanation, while he notes Bravery is even fitter than Raven is, she'd probably be called muscular if she came into the real world.

"No problem, I'll keep you safe as a baby. Follow me." She says in a slightly mocking tone, before turning away from them to lead them away. J'onn notes Hemon is rolling his eyes when her back is turned, and is reminded that with supreme confidence comes arrogance, if it is not tempered by something else, and Bravery is not tempered by anything. "By the way, you better behave in here or have to do the same to you as I did to the bell-head that came in uninvited." J'onn quirks an eyebrow at Hemon hoping he knows what she is talking about.

"I believe you know him as Dr. Fate. After he tried to separate Raven into her human and demon halves, he entered her mind while she was unconscious and Bravery…punched him back out." Hemon explains, with a tone that lacks sympathy for the doctor.

"Was a good punch too, right in the kisser!" Bravery adds from up front.

"It was." Hemon confirms while sending a look at J'onn, who understands this is how it has to be around Bravery; flattering.

"So you are Raven's self-confidence?" J'onn asks while the trio starts walking on a path between the trees.

"Yup, I'm the one that keeps telling her there's nothing she can't do. But she tends to weigh my advise somewhat lighter than Timid's most of the time. Timid's a good kid and I try to pep her up when I can, but she just sulks even more when I try." Bravery explains.

"I would have thought you would prefer her not having a say in the matter?" J'onn asks.

"I would like to have Timid's influence reduced, but Raven insists on keeping the both of us in 'balance', as she calls it. And it has gotten better, believe me, there have been long periods where Timid was the strongest amongst us here. Me and our brainy counterpart had to shake Raven out of it those times." J'onn guesses the one Bravery mentions is another emotion he has yet to meet. "Of course that yellow backstabber has to bring Timid along when I'm having all the fun." J'onn notes the sour expression she puts on at the mention.

"Which has only been a select few times." Hemon mentions.

"Sadly, but I have to settle with what I can do, like getting up in the morning." Bravery replies while looking from side to side, hoping for something to attack. "That last stint was going so well until that woman…"

"I believe you and your colleagues were told to keep that quiet, until Raven says otherwise." Hemon says sternly, knowing Bravery was about to begin cursing Aphrodite. J'onn looks at the pair, one unreadable, the other guarding his thoughts, Hemon notices the look. "It is a private matter, one I only know of because I was told to make sure it did not become known through Raven's emotions." J'onn narrows his gaze slightly, trying to see what this could be.

"The League would have me report if anything malicious kept hidden." J'onn says quietly.

"It's none of your or anyone else's business what I do after sunset greenie." Bravery says sternly with a menacing tone creeping into her voice, J'onn realizes she is close to turning hostile.

"It is not malicious, but it is private and not something anyone other than Raven should tell you about." Hemon finishes.

"I shall ask her when we are finished then." J'onn sighs though he can feel Hemon's sincerity in this; Hemon seems relieved while Bravery keeps scanning the woods, freezing when she spots something standing a little distance from the path in the shadows, something with one red eye.

"I thought he'd never show. HAVE AT THEE!" Bravery shouts before launching herself at the dark figure, leaving J'onn and Hemon on the road.

"Let her, while in her realm, she can't lose." Hemon says while placing a hand on J'onn's shoulder, guessing he is about to go assist. "And she doesn't appreciate the help anyways."

_S.T.A.R. Labs, Jump City:_

"Can I ask how you got us in?" Foley asks Shayera. He had mentioned that the remains of the dragon had been brought here for study, but that getting in was impossible, but Shayera had insisted on going and as she expected she didn't have much trouble being let in.

"Superman has helped them a lot in the past; it gives the League a few benefits." Shayera rattles off as they follow an armed guard down to the area where the dragon's remains is being kept.

"Down this way Miss." The guard mentions for the pair to enter thought a pair of metal sliding doors, with 'Sector 7' written above the door. The guard takes up his post besides it, being replaced as their escort by a similar dressed fellow on the other side. All of those they had seen so far are wearing the same uniform consisting of white and black, with the white full face helmets and all armed with red laser rifles. Shayera knows S.T.A.R. Labs are often targets for exceptionally fierce attacks because of the nature and value of the often groundbreaking research being performed here, so it explains the small army of guards with better equipment than the regular army soldier. They only follow this new guard a short while before coming to a crossroad in the corridors and a door in front of them, where another guard stands.

"Hold it, let me see some ID." The third guard holds up his hand at the visitors, who duly show him the visitor ID's they have been given, each hanging around their necks in a long nylon strap. "Ok, you're clear." The guard says after looking at both carefully before scanning them. The second guard pushes a button on a console next to the door causing it to slide open. As he steps through and to the side, Shayera spots several tables with all sorts of chemicals boiling in them. At the back there is a row of large windows, with something big kept in the hall on the other side of them.

Shayera whistles as she gets the full impression of Malchior's size, big enough to need a football field to lie on. The limp carcass is being suspended by many steel cables going under his chest, lower body, neck and head, giving the impression he is standing up. His mauled wings are supported in a similar manner, but anyone can see they will be unable to make him fly again, with the missing pieces of membrane and the visible breaks in the bones underneath.

"Took them a week to move it here." Foley mentions from Shayera's side, who is noting all the scientists inside the hall with the dragon, all wearing some kind of breathing apparatus along with yellow rubber suits. A doctor on the other side notices them and stops taking notes and knocks on the glass, motioning them to come closer, which they do, Shayera being careful not to let her wings knock over anything on the way.

"What can I do for you?" Shayera notes that it is a woman inside the bulky suit. Her voice is coming from a speaker beneath the windows.

"I am leading an investigation into Raven's possible emergence; I was hoping to find a few pieces of the puzzle with her last battle in Jump City." Shayera replies calmly.

"So you've come to see the big guy." The woman replies, Hawkgirl notes she is speaking with a Spanish accent. "I'm Dr. Rodriguez; I'm leading the research into 'Pyro' back there."

"Pyro?" Shayera asks with a questioning look on her face.

"Well it's what we call him, we know he could speak, but we don't know if he had a name or not." Rodriguez replies with a smirk on her naturally tanned face. Shayera notes the woman is shorter than herself, with a round, pleasant face and dark hair.

"No magicians have been by to help you out?" She asks, wondering how firmly Batman had the old rule enforced. _Under no circumstances were __**any**__ Leaguers allowed into Jump City as long as there were Titans present._ At the time, the other Founders had simply tied it to Batman's break with the first Robin, but Shayera is beginning to suspect it also had another reason, why else would Raven emerge in this very city after getting attacked by the League?

"Do you know any?" Rodriguez asks, while putting on a bored expression. "I'm a woman of science; magic is parlor tricks, nothing more." Shayera fights to not roll her eyes, Dr. Fate would have sat down calmly and explained and demonstrated, Zatanna would have turned the woman's pen and paper into a bundle of flowers, leaves or possibly snakes if she was in bad mood.

"I know a few who say they are, but I take it as a no then. So what can you tell me about this thing?" Shayera continues, guessing S.T.A.R. Labs could just see this as biology, not caring that Foley is drifting off to the side to look at some of the bubbling vats on the tables, keeping his hands in his back.

"Ohhh, not much." Rodriguez says with a mock bored tone.

"Would this be the company not much, where you just won't tell me or that you don't you actually know anything?" Shayera asks while crossing her arms.

"The second, we can tell you what the coroner wrote and a few things about its meat and the capabilities we've documented so far, but beyond that, Pyro is keeping tight."

"So after having him here over a year has yielded almost nothing?" Shayera smirks, Rodriguez puts on a sour expression.

"If you have a degree in biology then I welcome to join the rest of us in here!" She snaps, Shayera and her stares at each other so a moment before they both break contact.

"Sorry, so what can you tell me then?" Shayera apologies, knowing Earthling are not like her own people who would quickly have taken something like this outside. Rodriguez sighs, telling Shayera that she too has a temper.

"Well, he weighs around 200 tons, and that's calculated with the missing piece in his chest. His body is 105m long, his tail 127 and his neck and head adds another 75 meters. His wingspan is estimated to be about 350 meters, but we don't have the space to fold them out. We have tried to run tests but we can't determine his age, his biology is unlike anything we have ever seen before. We have found that his scales, which cover most of his body, are incredibly resilient. We haven't tested fully yet, but we assume he could shrug off artillery shells. The skin beneath is also highly resistant to damage, partly that's because the outer layer almost two centimeters thick. A notion we are looking into is that he is almost impervious to heat across his entire body and even inside his mouth. And before you ask, yes he breathed fire, some kind of liquid chemical that evaporates and catches fire when it comes into contact with air. It's like napalm, and just as hard to extinguish. The claws on his feet are diamond hard, we have evidence that he could shatter concrete with them, like it was wet sand, and pierce steel like it was paper. An odd note, his body is emitting a high amount of ammonium, which makes the air in here poisonous, even when frozen like he is now. It's strongest from around the hole in his chest." Shayera nods as the doctor finishes off her findings.

"Anything you tell me about the wound?"

"I'm assuming you're meaning the one that killed him, since he has a lot of wounds from his last fight. Including a broken jaw and wings, which ended up under him when he crashed at City Hall. Anyways the eyewitness reports said Raven had driven him to the ground, he was trying to get back up, but they all had the impression he was down for the count already. Raven then appeared above him; she didn't say anything before she raised her hands and a pillar of solid black seemed to blast out of Pyro's chest, and back. We have concluded through analyzing the wound that Raven had the pillar emerge from inside of him. I'm not sure if you can, but you should be able to see a few of his ribs point out of his chest and back from here." Rodriguez says while pointing at the wounded chest with her pen, Shayera nods that she can see the ribs.

"Have you tested the bones yet?" Shayera continues, wondering just what kind of power Raven had unleashed on it.

"As you may have guessed from a creature this heavy, the bones have to be like steel to support it. But unlike birds, his are solid, like human bones are. The amount of energy he would need to fly is immense, to put it mildly."

"_Or magic." _Shayera thinks. "I am guessing that Raven did not try to make it come peacefully." Shayera asks, returning to the last moments of the fight.

"Pff. After what that thing did to the city?" Rodriguez asks as if it was trick question. "Anyways unless we could borrow that dimensional projector Superman has, I doubt we had a place to contain him. Where were you guys when all that went down by the way?" Shayera is taken aback by Rodriguez's question.

"Would you believe the League had orders not to enter Jump City unless called upon by the Titans?" Rodriguez gives her a hard glare, telling Shayera it is an unacceptable answer.

"Tell the one who issued that order that he has the blood of 147 people on their hands. I am not saying you could have saved them all, but you could have prevented some."

"I won't say now that it was a reasonable order. But we got it 8 years ago, until this came up, we had no reason to go here. The Titans had virtually no casualties, civilian or otherwise, while they were active. When it was just Raven, the trend seemed to continue. And before you argue, yes I think we should have been here." Shayera explains, dodging the question of who issued the order.

"Yes you should." Rodriguez replies in an icy tone. "Was there anything else you'd like to know?"

"No. Thank you for your time doctor." Shayera finishes, knowing her welcome had just expired.


	34. Ch'ar Men'nas, part 3

While Hawkgirl is walking through S.T.A.R. Labs, Raven has decided to try and find out where J'onn's is keeping himself in his mind, which is no easy task. As all the male Martians look alike to her and none of them have any thoughts for her to pick up from a distance, unlike the population in her own head.

"If I was J'onn J'onzz, where would I be?" She says out loud, at the altitude she is maintaining even real people wouldn't hear her. "At work? If he even had one?" She realizes he could have been anything from a Martian bum to a prince for all she knows, thanks to the very limited information she had on him before his arrival on Earth. "Out eating? No, he hardly eats anything on Earth, why should he be stuffing himself here?" She glides back and forth a few times, giving the impression she is pacing, a habit she picked up after the others left. When she found out she had begun doing it back in the Tower, she realized she was doing the same thing as Robin when he was thinking deeply about a case. She suddenly looks up and snaps her fingers. "Got it! With his family of course!" It's logical when she thinks about it, what does everyone miss the most when alone? It then hits her that it has been the same thing she has been missing the most for the last four years; family. "Now I only got to figure out where he lives. Hmm…." While thinking she begins scanning the city below her for clues, she notes the architectural favoring of circles is even spread to the city plan. Everything seems to be arranged in circles with open spaces in the middles, with all the fronts of the buildings pointing towards the center. There is any number of these circles in various sizes, some even consisting of smaller circles and finally Raven notes the largest circle that rings the entire city. It is the realization that the entire city is circular that turns on the neon sign inside Raven's head, reading 'obviously'. Even when totally alone she resists slapping her own forehead, realizing that; J'onn would naturally be in the center of his own mind.

Having made up her mind, she climbs to an even greater altitude from where she can see the entire city from above. Looking down, she quickly sees the center of the city and begins descending towards it. From above she notes that the building she is aiming for is unassuming, if seen from the street, one wouldn't know it was the center of the city. The tower is three stories tall with the onion shaped roof, each floor above the ground has a walkway surrounding the tower. Raven halts her decent at the roof, a thought has struck her.

"_He could own the whole tower, but it's big enough to house a family on each floor, I better check the front door."_ Landing at the front door, she spots a plate with what she guesses is the resident's names. Walking closer she is slightly annoyed, the names are written in Martian, which to her eyes bears superficial semblance to the katakana style of writing used in Japan, only added with many more symbols and lines and is written in a circle rather than a line, which makes it completely unreadable to her.

After the adventure the Titans had while in Japan, Raven had tried to master written Japanese in her sparet time, in case they should ever get stuck there again she was adamant on not being without any reading material. She admits she is not good at it, but she can read it with difficulty now. Out of fear of being bombarded by Beastboy and the load of manga comics that he brought with him home, she's kept it quiet from the others.

"_Guess I will have to look and hope."_ She thinks the last note in reference that J'onn will look like all the other Martians while making for the door. _"Eh?"_ As she looks closer on the plate, the symbols seems to change, some fading out and some straightening out to form the letters used in the western part of Earth, leaving three pairs of names. Raven wonders briefly if this is J'onn subconsciously helping her or part of her own mind imposing itself in here before reading the names from the bottom up:

Ground Floor: C'har & L'iazz M'koo

1St Floor: Tc'al & Z'rizza L'rit

2nd Floor: J'onn, M'ria, H'ry & C'li J'onzz.

Raven is surprised; she knew J'onn had a wife, but kids? A sudden thought strikes her, maybe this is what J'onn did not want her to see. She doesn't know if he is aware of what she is doing or if her actions will affect either of them after they are done, she may be reopening old wounds by interacting with the memories here. Internally she starts curses J'onn for not explaining fully what it is she is supposed to do, she doesn't know if he considers his memories as private as she does her own and unlike herself, he hasn't provide a guide. So does she risk angering and hurting him or is she missing the entire point of this? As Ravens internal debate continues, she doesn't notice the figure walking up behind her.

"Could I ask you to hold the door for me?" A female Martian asks, her arms loaded down with bags. Raven absentmindedly holds the door open, the Martian as walks inside before Raven realizes it.

"You can see me?" She asks.

"Of course, we have been expecting you, please come inside." The woman replies with a small smile before continuing her way inside. Raven has an odd feeling like being a cartoon pirate on a treasure hunt, she's been all over the island looking for the X marking the spot, only to realize she is standing on it. She follows the woman inside, somewhat dumbstruck. Remaining silent she follows her up the spiral staircase inside the building up to the top floor, and again holds the door open for her when they reach the one there.

"Thank you. J'onn I'm home!" The woman calls as she enters the apartment; from somewhere inside Raven hears some shuffling around and suddenly two young Martian's come running out of a side door and run towards them. The woman puts down her bags and embraces them both. Over the hugging trio, Raven can see inside the apartment; it's is not that dissimilar to one on Earth. Raven guesses she is looking into the living room, with a low couch and table; a taller round table with seats around it along the walls are a few cupboards, some with strange illuminating sculptures on them. Raven guesses the sculptures are the Martian equals of lamps, even if they look more like colorful trees with globes floating around them. It seems the Martians prefer bright and living colors, like red, orange, yellow and purple. Oddly Raven is reminded of a hippie home from around the 60's she once saw a picture of, Starfire would have loved it.

"Welcome home M'ria." J'onn's voice is heard before Raven sees him walking out of the same room the two youngsters emerged from, she confirms her earlier assumption; she can't tell him from any of the other Martians she's seen so far. "And welcome Raven, I was beginning to worry you wouldn't come."

"Thank you, but I think I missed the part where I was to seek you out." Raven apologizes, while catching the attention of the kids.

"Wow, a White Martian!" One of them exclaims, while letting go of his mother.

"What's that on its head?" Raven puts a hand on her head as the other one asks and points, noticing her hood has fallen back, feeling nothing unusual she smirks when she realizes what it is, she has what no Martian has; hair.

"Now H'ry, C'li. Raven is a guest, and not a White Martian, she is from Earth." M'ria says as J'onn collects the bags and takes them out another door. One of the two boys circle around his mother as she gets up and reaches out to touch Raven's cloak, he comes within an inch of it before Raven pulls away. "Something wrong?" M'ria asks while putting on a questioning look.

"Erm…I…it is a bit hard to explain." Weird is probably the correct word, Raven notes internally. M'ria only smiles, which Raven finds odd.

"No need to fear, J'onn told us you have not tried this before. He probably forgot to mention how this usually works?" Raven nods at her, for some reason the two boys snigger a bit.

"A habit of mine, I am sorry to say." J'onn says as he comes out of the other room. "You need not worry Raven; we know this is all a part of my mind, I will tell you about it later. And don't fear, you won't absorb memories here." He says while moving to hold the door open for her, gesturing for her to enter.

"_This is going to be interesting."_ Raven says to herself as she, bunches up her courage and steps inside. Almost immediately, the boy that wanted to touch her cloak before has actually put his long head under it. "Erm…"

"Whoa, its legs are funny as well!" He exclaims and is quickly joined by his brother; Raven is shocked to say the least.

"H'ry! C'li! Where are your manners?!" M'ria asks sternly as she puts her hands on her hips with a disapproving face, the boys pull back, looking somewhat embarrassed in front of their mother. "Now apologize to Raven."

"Sorry Raven." The duo says as one, like a pair of school boys.

"I apologize as well; their manners have yet to improve." J'onn says after closing the door. "I imagine you have trouble telling them apart?" J'onn asks with a smile.

"Umm, yeah." Raven replies somewhat embarrassed, knowing some parents can be touchy around their offspring.

"Humans rely more on their eyes than Martians do, but this is H'ry." J'onn says while putting a hand on the left one, Raven notes he is slightly taller than his brother, who J'onn places his other hand on. "And this is C'li."

"Pleasure to meet you." Raven says, while smiling at them.

"And this is my lovely wife M'ria." J'onn says while moving behind his wife and places both hands on her shoulders.

"Nice to meet you as well." Raven says while nodding at her, M'ria smiles and replies the nod.

"And of course this is Raven, hopefully a coming colleague of mine." J'onn says while motioning at Raven, giving her a proper introduction.

"We are very excited to meet you; J'onn never brings colleagues from Earth."

"Not from a lack of desire to do so, I can assure you." J'onn continues, striking off the notion growing in Raven's head; why didn't he?

"I am honored you'd invite me in." Raven replies courteously, and she is not lying.

"No, it is us that are honored you would come. Please come sit, lunch should be ready soon." M'ria says, motioning at the dinner table. The kids run to secure their usual seats, aside each other, while J'onn disappears out the door he took the bags. Raven takes seat between H'ry and M'ria.

"So you're not a White Martian?" H'ry asks, staring at Raven with his eyes wide with curiosity.

"No, I am human, partially. What's a White Martian?" Raven asks, hoping to cover up what she just said.

"They are a vicious lot, like us in abilities, but they look like this." M'ria says while altering her appearance; her skin turns milk white, while she grows exposed sharp teeth along with her head that becomes more square-shaped as her cheekbones extend backwards more and more. Along with the skin and head, she grows a long tail with spikes sticking out of the top and a long snaking tongue. Raven notes M'ria has drifted from the advanced extraterrestrial type, as earthlings like to categorize them as, into the other archetype, the slavering monster type that's favored as movie bad guys.

"I take it they are not friendly." Raven says.

"Unlike us Green Martians, the White's were warriors born. We live in peace, they in war. Fortunately they spent most of their time fighting amongst themselves." J'onn says while coming back into the room with a plate loaded with what looks like fruit, M'ria changes back into her normal look. "Lunch is served."

_Raven's mind:_

"I did not think Raven could be so aggressive." J'onn says to Hemon as they exit the forest, Bravery having left them a little while ago as Wonder Woman appeared and boldly challenged her, to which she had accepted without hesitation.

"She's weighted down in the real world by Timid. For the most part, Timid has more influence. But Bravery surfaces from time to time, like when Raven accepted your trials."

"Most heroes I know of, were overjoyed when asked to join, I thought she didn't want to appear overwhelmed when we suggested it?" J'onn continues.

"You forget, Raven was raised amongst emotionless faces if not hostile, and these were supposed to be the ones that cared for her. To her it is a big step to approach a person she don't know, and add that the League has attacked her, twice." J'onn nods at this, it makes sense, and Raven had a right to be upset with the League. "Raven was fortunate that the other Titan's accepted her so readily, they became the family she never had in Azerath. Unfortunately her confidence in young people on Earth was severely shaken a few years after the Titans formed." Hemon say's as they approach the next portal.

"What happened?" J'onn asks sensing it was significant.

"Terra happened." Hemon say's with a hint of sadness. "Raven told us about her after we arrived. Terra was a troubled girl with an enormous power over earth and rocks, but very little control. The Titans encountered and befriended her, but her motives for appearing and her lack of control of her powers caused her to flee the Titans. She returned some time later, as a spy for a man named Slade. Raven was suspicious of her from the beginning, as Terra seemed to have attainted complete control over her powers in the span of a few months. Raven has admitted that this suspicion was at first fueled by jealousy, as Raven still had to meditate daily or her powers would grow out of her control. And a small fear that Terra's newfound control would cause the other Titans to think Raven was not trying hard enough to control her own; ultimately she feared the others would turn away from her completely as Terra seemed to be the opposite of Raven. Terra would laugh with the others, join in the fun they had and was always open to them, Raven on the other hand was reclusive, never laughed or seemed to have any fun with the others."

"In short, she felt threatened." J'onn surmises.

"Very. But Raven's suspicion deepened when the two brushed shoulders by accident, making Raven catch a glimpse of Terra's memories, where she saw Slade, but it was over too fast for her to say anything definitive. They learned later on that Slade had come after Terra when she left the Titans. Raven mentioned her concerns to Robin, and he agreed that Terra's return and control was suspect, but they could do nothing without evidence. Anyways, Terra managed to prove herself to Raven and the others as they had to work together to save their tower from Slade's machines. All was well, until Terra betrayed them all to Slade, revealing that she had been his student ever since she came back. After a battle that left much of the tower in ruins, Terra departed leaving a heartbroken Beastboy and a bitter Raven. You must understand Raven treasures the Titans as family and had accepted Terra as a part of that. That Terra would betray that, shook Raven, she simply couldn't believe someone would betray a caring family like that. How much it affected Raven came to show when Terra returned to kill them all. Slade had separated the Titans, using his monsters as bait. Robin and Starfire went for a rock creature called Cinderblock. Beastboy and Cyborg was to take down a creature called Plasmus and Raven was going to take down an electrical creature known as Overload. After each of the monsters where dealt with, Terra appeared and took the Titans down. Raven was the only one to face her alone, and fell victim to Terra's taunts. Raven has speculated Terra had received instructions to play this strategy, so Raven would lose control of her powers. But it did come as a surprise to Terra when Raven got angry, fortunately for Terra she was able to force Raven to teleport away." Hemon finishes his tale as they step through the portal. "Just a note, back then when Raven got angry, was not the same as you have seen these days."

"I see. So who are meeting now?" J'onn asks while noting the air has shifted to smell somewhat rank, like there was a landfill nearby.

"This is Sloth's realm, but we have to come to her for obvious reasons." Hemon says.

"She's lazy." J'onn assumes.

"Very and one of the least influential emotions, only trying halfheartedly to get Raven to sleep in at a morning once in a while, don't worry the next is a real talker." Hemon assures, noting J'onn putting on a disappointed expression.

A short while later they are nearing the exit, J'onn had been a bit disturbed finding a severely obese Raven in a brown cape, fast asleep on a mountain on dirty laundry and old food stuffs. J'onn is internally relieved that she didn't wake up, as personal hygiene seemed to a low priority for the emotion.

"Well, now that you have seen that. It's time we visit Wisdom." Hemon says as they step through and enter a huge library. They can see the far end where the next portal is, a dark hole in the rows of bookcases, next to an open fireplace that's currently out. In front of the fireplace is a large chair, where a yellow cloaked individual is seated with her nose in a book. "Just a note, she knows everything Raven does and vice versa. And she is very curious."

As they walk closer, J'onn notes there are several stacks of books standing around Wisdom and that she wears a pair of thick glasses on the bridge of her nose.

"Right on time." She says, looking up from her book as the pair draws near. "I've been looking forwards to meeting you in person J'onn, what I am seeing in your mind is quite fascinating."

"I am glad you're enjoying it." J'onn replies.

"Enjoyment is another emotion, you visited her first." Wisdom replies smartly before punctuating her earlier statement: "I find it interesting."

"I see, so you know everything Raven does?" J'onn asks.

"Yes, and a little more. Since I am not bothered by other emotions, I am free to be wise about everything, so I know everything that's going on in Raven's mind." She explains, while closing her book and folding her hands over it, J'onn decides to test her.

"I once read that humans explain their actions due to emotions, and as I have seen Raven is living proof of this. We on Mars had the concept, but I am curious, how many emotions are there?"

"Well it depends on perception really; personally I have encountered 72 different kinds of emotions here. But they all stem from certain…parent emotions that can be broken down. Like Timid, she consists of amongst others; Fear and Misery, who again are parents of Insecurity and Jealousy. And it goes on like that for all of us here, all of us who have always been here, that is." She explains, while looking at Hemon while saying the last bit.

"And yourself?" J'onn asks.

"Well for one to be wise, one must have Knowledge, Insight and Memory. If you look up behind me you should see Memory." J'onn and Hemon looks up and spots a Raven wearing a cream colored cloak floating a few meters above ground with her back facing them. "We won't get anything out her right now; she's busy memorizing what we are seeing in your head, she's almost photographic by the way."

"Photographic memory?" J'onn asks.

"Yup, well almost, there are something's we have forgotten. Problem is of course, that because she is always busy remembering for us, means she is not very talkative." Wisdom sighs.

"Are there others like her?" J'onn asks, wondering how many preoccupied emotions Raven is running.

"Plenty, but most of them are only active when used. Us parent emotions are always active in some way, but the ones like Memory and the others are invisible and asleep unless used specifically. You saw one on the way here, in Timid's labyrinth." Wisdom notes, J'onn thinks back.

"The one in the straitjacket?"

"Yes, Madness, before you ask, the jacket is her cloak...after a fashion." Wisdom replies.

"Does this mean Raven is insane?" J'onn asks the obvious, Wisdom smirks while beginning to polish her glasses with the rim of her cloak.

"Well yes, in a way. But so is every living organism capable of making a creative decision, even you." J'onn gives her a questioning look. "Think of it this way; Inspiration is only part of an equation needed to be creative, be it painting, writing or sculpting. Alone it will remain locked into the things in the world around it; Madness is needed, in small amounts, to move beyond conformity of what is and onto new areas and create something truly unique."

"I fail to see why I should be insane?" J'onn continues.

"Umm…" Wisdom tries to find a way to explain this; Memory whispers something that neither of the men can hear. "Ah yes, your shapshifting abilities, as I understand them, you need not always consciously think about the shapes and forms you take?" J'onn thinks for a moment before nodding. "Sometimes it is of course pure reflexes that make you use them, say when something charges you and you need to avoid the collision. But as far as I can tell, you do not think at an accelerated rate like the Flash, so what is it inside of you that decides whenever to scatter your molecules or turn into liquid and slip past?"

"They are a result of my many years of active duty and training as a Manhunter." He replies.

"They are, but that is not my point, my point is that there is something inside of you that decides what to do, when you are not thinking about it. For me at least, that is Madness."

"So she is benevolent?" J'onn asks.

"In small amounts she is. I like to think of it as a caveman's Madness that pushed his Curiosity to throw his raw meat on the fire and then eat it afterwards, making him Happy."

"It makes sense when I think about it, had Curiosity alone been responsible for it, you or Memory might have talked him out of it with memories of stomach aches from eating too heavily burnt meals." Wisdom nods at his deducting.

"Precisely."

"So how do you coordinate?" J'onn continues, having had two years of monitor duty has given him some insight into organization and with what he had seen so far, he had begun wondering if the emotions only convened at certain times.

"The council you saw while you were here last, we do our thing from there, it's much easier to direct and coordinate from there." J'onn worries for a second that his visit is disrupting something.

"You are not needed there now?" He asks thinking the emotions were just here for his viewing pleasure.

"I am there, right now. All of us you've seen so far have a double permanently seated in the Council, we are them, and they are we." Wisdom explains. "It was our urgings that prevented Bravery from challenging you to a fight, something Overconfidence, one of Bravery's, was egging her on to do. Anyways I think it is time you were on your way again, there is still a few things you need to see."

"Yes, your next colleague does tend to become…unpleasant if things don't go according to schedule." Hemon says.

"She would do wise to keep quiet once in a while." Wisdom replies. "It was interesting meeting you J'onn."

"I was a pleasure meeting you as well." J'onn says, wondering if it is Raven as a whole or just a part of her that has worked out a schedule for him to follow.

"It just me." Wisdom adds with a smirk, this surprises J'onn.

"You've read my mind?" He realizes.

"I read everyone's minds. Remember; I am not weighted down by concerns of Decency, that's one of Timid's." J'onn put on a somewhat sour expression at Wisdom's coldness as she opens her book again. "Don't worry; I can't remember anything I see in your head without asking Memory to help me out." She says as she gets herself comfortable.

"J'onn I think we should get going, Wisdom, as always it was interesting." Hemon says while grabbing hold of J'onn's arm.

"I think so too." J'onn nods his farewell to the emotion before walking out the door, followed by Hemon.

"Till we meet again." Wisdom says quietly before making the fireplace burst into flame again.


	35. Ch'ar Men'nas, part 4

"You seem surprised?" J'onn says noticing Raven staring oddly at the remains of her fruit.

"It's not every day I get a fruit that tastes like salted ham." Raven replies.

"But hopefully it doesn't taste bad?"

"Well no, it's just a bit out of place to me." Raven admits. "Beastboy should try this." She adds, wondering how the vegetarian would take it.

"So Raven, you said earlier that you were only part human, may we ask what the other part is?" M'ria enquires.

"J'onn hasn't told you?" Raven counters.

"Only that you are one of many with extra-human abilities." M'ria answers.

"With J'onn's permission, I think it is easier if I show you." J'onn nods at Ravens request, who slowly changes into her demon self. Noting M'ria and the boy's eyes grow wide.

"Whoa, you defiantly have to be a Red Martian!" C'li exclaims excitedly.

"There is no such thing C'li. But I am perplexed, what are you?" M'ria asks.

"Do you know the name; Trigon?"

"I am afraid not." M'ria says while folding her hands in front of her on the table.

"He may have gone under a different name here, but he claimed he was the source of all evil. A demon of tremendous power, his only goal was to destroy or enslave anything he came into contact with. I am his only child." Raven explains, hoping they get the drift.

"You speak of him in past tense?" M'ria notes.

"Well, with the help of my friends, I hope I destroyed him when he tried taking over the Earth." Raven says while changing back to her human guise.

"I see, and he would not have stopped at Earth?" M'ria continues while J'onn collects the remains of fruit.

"No, he had his own universe, yet still wanted Earth and the worlds beyond it."

"A grim being indeed. So what is it you can do, since J'onn's colleagues want to recruit you?"

"Yeah, show us." H'ry demands in playful tone, Raven feels she is warming to the pair, like her Kids the pair wasn't at all scared of her, rather they were curious and excited.

"Well I am what we on Earth call an empath, meaning I can sense the emotions of others. Also I am a telekinetic, means I can move things by focusing on it." Raven demonstrates by having one of the three remaining fruit float a few rounds around the table, much to the amusement of the boys, C'li begins poking the fruit once it lands. "Also my empathy allows me to heal myself and others. I can also teleport to other places and dimensions, as long as I know where I am going. Lastly I have some knowledge of a branch of magic, but I have very little control over it, so I rarely use it."

"Magic is hard to describe, it is capable of many things; from harmless pranks and conjuring to destructive blasts." J'onn explains as he returns, Raven assumes there is no such thing as a Martian magician.

"And lastly then there's the shape shifting, and it's not limited to my other shape." Raven finishes the list of her usual extra human powers, demonstrating the last one by turning her right arm into a snake. After turning it back, Raven decides to ask one of her own questions; "J'onn, when I arrived here, I followed a group of kids into a building where they took part in a gathering of some sort. Where they joined into a kind of choir service?"

J'onn replies with a small smirk on his face. "That would have been our equal of church service, where we give thanks to the sky above us, the ground beneath us and the fire that we fear."

"You fear fire?"

"Yes, light a match near me and I become less than useful. It is something all Martians fear, White as well as Green. We do not know why but it has always been this way, so it should hardly be surprising that our god of death is a being made of fire?" J'onn explains.

Raven nods; "Makes sense, humans fear death itself. So they made up the idea that the being that will take them from the land of the living is a human skeleton."

"Your kind fear old bones?" H'ry asks.

"Only if they move around on their own. More accurately, humans fear what happens to them after they pass on. Depending on belief system, you can end in some very unpleasant places, live again as human or beast or find peace and happiness, but the fewest believe they will get there."

"So what do you believe?" C'li continues.

Raven sighs, this is something she does not want to be reminded of; "I was raised, in a place where the god walked amongst us. To them there was nothing after death, just complete peace. I always questioned their beliefs; especially after she died, of old age. After I came to Earth and learned more of the faiths there, I am afraid to say that because of my father, I only have one place to go when I pass on. No matter what I may do in life, will have no effect on what becomes of me after I die."

"Fear not, as J'onn has told me; some of the gods on Earth show remarkable capacity for forgiveness." M'ria says while putting a hand on Ravens shoulder for comfort.

"I hope that is true." A strange silence seems to fill the room, before Raven asks something else. "So why is it you are so much different from the world outside? I was nearly invisible to everyone I saw at first and I absorbed memories just by making contact."

"Partially it is because I remember my family better than anything else. But what you see here is something you would find in any Martian mind, at a young age we all undergo a psychic ritual where we bond with our parents. We repeat the ritual when we marry. But you said nearly invisible?" J'onn asks.

"After the songs were finished, the speaker told the assembly to thank the 'great spirit' that were amongst them, at that point they all turned to look at where I stood. I could see they couldn't actually see me, but it seemed like they could sense me."

"You believe it was you?" M'ria asks.

"Actually I am kind of hoping the whole event is a memory and that I just happened to stand where something happened." Raven explains, J'onn leans back in his chair while rubbing his chin before answering.

"It would have been you they sensed, when we sing we become more aware of presences we can't see. The speaker can usually tell who is watching, if she did not address you by name, it is because she doesn't know you. It happened from time to time that one of our gods would drop by to watch and listen to the songs, but sometimes a great ancestor would come."

"So there's no chance of it being me of stumbling into your memories?" Raven asks.

"Not in the way you want it to, does it trouble you?" J'onn notes.

"As you have been in Timid's labyrinth, you will know I wonder if terrible isn't a better word than great to describe my spirit?" Raven asks while sulking a bit.

"You worry too much Raven, during my journey though your mind, I have yet to encounter anything worrying other than Wisdom reading my mind without permission." J'onn replies.

"And I will talk to her about that, but there is little hope that she will change even if she could. And you have yet to meet my bad emotions. But till you meet them, why don't you tell me about yourselves?" Raven asks which brings out small smiles on the Martian's faces.

"We could do like you have already tried, by touching." M'ria suggests.

"If it's ok with you, I do like the conversation."

"And so shall it be." J'onn says, motioning for them all to move to the couch.

_Jump City:_

"I take it Dr. Rodriguez is not the only one in the city who has a frigid view of the League." Shayera asks Foley as they exit S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Most only wonder why you never showed up, either during the fight or after. Some think you had your reasons or other emergencies to tend to. But some think you don't care about this city." He replies while walking over to his car.

"I can understand that." She says while watching him unlocking his car. "Look Thomas, I want to thank you for showing me around, but I've booked a meeting with the mayor in a few minutes and I will be heading back afterward."

He looks up with a somewhat strange look on his face before recovering. "Well I was glad I was able to help, it was a pleasure to meet you Hawkgirl." He says while extending his hand to her, which she shakes.

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well officer Foley." With this she spreads her wings and takes off, leaving the blond man behind.

Who mutters to himself; "It really was a pleasure."

While in the afternoon sky, Shayera contacts her colleagues. "Hawkgirl to Watchtower."

"_This is Watchtower, go ahead Shayera." _Captain Atom's voice chimes through.

"Captain, can I get you to relay a message to Dr. Fate?" With the captain, it is always a gamble if you could get him to do more manual chores. Something which Supergirl and Stargirl have found out the hard way.

"_Of course Ma'am."_ The Captain replies, it had taken a while to get used to, but Shayera is the only one who is still addressed as Captain, the others having persuaded him to stop being so rigid.

"Ok, tell him S.T.A.R. Lab's in Jump City has a dragon he can help them with identifying."

"_I will relay your message. Speaking of; Dr. Fate wanted to let you know that he is looking into something concerning the rookie, but he is tight lipped about specifics." _Over the years, Shayera had gotten used to that both John and the Captain has a habit of calling the new faces on the Watchtower rookies, no matter how many years they may have been active outside of it.

"Keep me posted if he wants to share anything." Shayera considers if it may be good or bad what Fate finds and what his lead is.

"_Will do Ma'am."_

"Ok, Shayera signing off." She says as she touches down on the steps of City Hall, getting the people there to stare in surprise.

_Raven's mind:_

"She is hardly an emotion I'd call useful." J'onn says as they leave Rude's realm, accompanied by the seemingly endless stream of verbal abuse from the mistress of the realm. Thankfully her voice falls silent as they exit. Again J'onn felt somewhat violated, as Rude had started to read his every thought aloud when they met her, Hemon had assured she only did it because he found it offending, which was of little comfort before she started mocking his choice of clothing.

"I agree, but Raven has found use of her for a long time. Mostly when interacting with people she either doesn't like or find annoying. Her green friend, for instance." Hemon replies, as happy to be out of earshot of Rude as J'onn is. "Usually she only taps into Rude to get him to leave her alone or to make some remark. Unfortunately Raven's sense of humor is usually tied with Rude as well."

"You are referring to sarcasm?" J'onn asks as they draw near to the next portal, one carved into the bottom of the rock Azerath rests on.

"Yes, fortunately Happy manages to delude Rude so the remarks loose the barbs that could prove counterproductive in most cases." Hemon answers, halting them both before the portal. "We are about to enter the most dangerous part of Ravens mind and hopefully avoid aggravating the emotions that dwell here. You must understand that Anger or Rage is the part of Raven that is still completely enslaved to the whims of her father and as such, utterly inhuman. If she becomes dominant here, well, you saw what happened to Diana." J'onn nods at him; it had been a major stir amongst the Founders when Raven attacked Diana. "It is Raven's wish you see why she lets Timid hold such sway she does. And remember, what you see here is what Rage and her brood wants to be real. And don't draw attention to us, it can prove dangerous." J'onn nods again and follows Hemon inside the cave.

Walking thought the dark tunnel for a while; the pair sees a red glow illuminating the left wall after around 10 minutes of walking, according to J'onn. Hemon slows down and motions for J'onn to halt before he dims his own glow and leans up the wall on the right and looks through the opening, scouting for danger. Waving his left hand he calls J'onn up to join him, J'onn as a precaution lets himself become partially invisible before moving up to see what Hemon is seeing. The sight makes him wonder and partially regret mentioning the Martian vulnerability to fire.

Inside is a massive cavern with only a narrow ledge, barely wide enough for a person to stand on. The cavern floor itself is sunk fifty meters below the ledge, in the center of the part they can see is a huge bonfire. The fire alone is enough to worry J'onn even if it's almost a hundred meters away, what truly sets off J'onn's alarm bells it's the fuel; human bodies. J'onn quickly tears his gaze away from the pyre, afraid he would see something that he didn't want to. Instead he looks at the floor; the sight makes him cringe, more bodies. Some clearly dead, some barely alive but all in a very poor condition. Hemon's ghostly hand passes over J'onn's vision, causing him to look at his ghostly companion, who is motioning for them to move along the ledge.

Hemon goes first, edging slowly along the wall. J'onn follows even slower, trying not to be captivated by the pyre. For J'onn it feels like it takes an eternity for him to put one foot forwards, but eventually he is three quarters across, when suddenly the air is pierced by an inhuman scream, causing both J'onn and Hemon to freeze and stare into the cave. At first they can see nothing beyond the pyre, after 10 seconds of holding breaths, J'onn catches sight of movement.

At first it seems like a shadow moving over the floor, but shortly after, J'onn catches sight of a pale leg in a black boot walking on the shadow. The rest of the person steps into view, J'onn realizes who it is; Hatred. The shadow before her is her powers blackening the bodies around her, practically rotting them away in her presence. J'onn's gaze wanders up the black cloaked form of Hatred, stopping at her eyes, all four of them.

"I HATE being stared at!" Hatred yells in a voice that sounds like torn cardboard, while locking eyes with J'onn who freezes all movement. His mind almost fails to notice the second arrival.

"I know you do, and it ANGERS me greatly!" J'onn forcibly shuts down his telepathic senses, as another Raven appears behind Hatred, one dressed in a red cape; Rage. Her voice is unlike anything J'onn would expect from the guise she wears, it is that of Raven as he's seen her in reality but Rage speaks with a second voice as well, one of a deep bass. "Soo, you would learn of my Anger and my Hate?" J'onn remains completely frozen, not seeing Hemon frantically trying to get his attention. "Very well, know me!"

J'onn's mindscape suffers a sudden quake while J'onn collapses on the ground, while clutching his head. The kids, M'ria and Raven rushes to his side.

Inside J'onn's mind, he is flooded by images and feeling, images of a man in ancient blue armor with glowing red eyes, his image blurs with that of a bare-chested brute with brown curly hair with his back turned towards a burning city. The brute disappears, being replaced by high-pitched screams and the image of a man J'onn recognizes as Dr. Light. His image is replaced by one of a one eyed man with a piercing stare in a orange and black mask that parts in the middle, he surrounded by shadow. Before the image disappears he sees two figures emerging from the shadows, one a blond girl with blue eyes and a boy with spiky hair and a domino mask, the names Slade, Terra and Robin make their way into J'onn's mind. The one eyed man suddenly grows a red rune on his forehead and the image changes. J'onn finds him in a burning wasteland sanding on a pillar of rock with the symbol the man wore on his forehead stamped into the ground. From his perch J'onn watches the previous images he saw, standing in a circle fighting a losing battle against multiple black and red cloaked Raven's. While he watches, Dr. Light goes down and is torn apart by a black and a red cloaked Raven, using nothing but their bare hands. The others swiftly suffer the same fate and the Raven's start fighting amongst themselves, visiting their hatred and fury on each other. Soon there are only two left, one red and one black, still trying to wrestle each other to the ground.

"You have done well done my child." An incredibly deep voice materializes out of nowhere and the two Raven's and the remains of their victims are lifted into the sky by a red skinned hand that grows out of the ground. As J'onn watches the owner of the hand materializes out of the air; Trigon. "A father could be no prouder of his daughter than I."

"Hatred, rules you!" One of the two Raven's says to Trigon as both of them ignite in black flames.

"Rage, consumes you!" The other echoes, Trigon appears displeased as the pair leaps at him. At this the vision ends, as the three are struck by a pillar of light that expands outwards, obliterating everything it touches.

_Inside J'onn's mindscape:_

"What has happened to him?" M'ria asks as J'onn calms down, but is now unconscious.

"I told you he was on a journey through my mind?" M'ria and the kids nod. "He just met the embodiments of my anger and my hatred, but he's safe now, he should wake up in a matter of minutes." Raven explains.

"You have no control over them?" C'li asks.

"Not when they are within their own realms, giving them that kind of freedom makes them easier to manage as a whole. But it does make Rage's cave the most dangerous part of my mind. I was hoping J'onn and his guide could avoid meeting them. I am sure you know your father would not be satisfied had I said he shouldn't go in because of the danger."

"He is like that." M'ria admits while looking at the unconscious form of her husband.

_Raven's mind:_

"Is he coming to?" Someone asks.

"I hope so." Someone else replies.

"I know so." A third, slightly familiar, voice counters.

"Told you he was stupid to go in there." J'onn waking mind wonders how many there are around him, and where is he?

"Hush Rude, he would not have had it any other way." The third voice counters, receiving a disdainful reply of some kind.

J'onn opens his eyes, with a blurry vision he sees a brown ceiling above him. He can see one source of light is placed somewhere near his feet and a blue shape standing over him, who starts speaking.

"Welcome back J'onn, you had me worried for a moment." J'onn recognizes Hemons voice, guessing he is the one standing above him.

"What happened?" J'onn asks while rolling over onto his side, he feels groggy and his head hurts.

"Isn't it obvious? I let you know my anger and hatred." The double voice makes J'onn's head snap around to face the speaker, only seeing a red and black spot on the brown canvas.

"Don't worry; she won't do anything in here." Hemon says, while offering his hand so J'onn can get up. With his vision clearing as well as his memory, J'onn recognizes the place he is in, the Council of Ravens.

"I'm sorry that happened J'onn." Timid apologies; while looking very small in her seat between Wisdom and Bravery, J'onn can see she is on the verge of tears.

"Well J'onn you wanted to know how many we are. Take a look around." Wisdom instructs. While leaning slightly on Hemon, who seems to become more solid, J'onn notes there really are many emotions here, at least 50 of them, all wearing their own colors, but they seem to disappear into the back of the room. He is not surprised to see the more hostile emotions he had met sitting near each other; with Hatred on the flank with Rage next to her. Rage in turn has Rude on her right and the fast asleep Sloth on Rude's other side.

"I think I will need a pen and pencil." J'onn groans, wondering if he is to meet all of them, Wisdom smirks while Rude grumbles.

"You won't." She says as a cold wind suddenly sweeps through the room.

"You better watch this. " Hemon says, knowing what is to come.

J'onn watches intently with a throbbing head. One by one, the emotions turn intangible and float into the glowing white sphere in the center, J'onn notes it is all the lesser emotions that disappear first, like Hatred. When there is only seven left, they all get up and walk to the sphere, each placing a hand on it. As J'onn watches, they all disappear in a flash of white that blinds him, when his vision returns; he sees there is no sphere anymore, only one Raven, dressed completely in white. Inside J'onn's mind Ravens clothes take a similar change as does her moving shape in the real world.

"This is…" J'onn's question trails off, noticing this new form does not think in fragments like the emotions.

"This is me, when you put all my emotions in one place." Raven replies as she walks over, J'onn instantly feels better in her presence. In his own mind he wakes up on the couch with a start, surprising his family.

"You seem so different." J'onn notes, to his eyes, Raven appears a lot more at peace than what she usually does.

"I am different." Raven replies; "This is the person I would have been, had it not been for my father, emotionally related powers and the dangers that come with them. So how about a tour of Azerath? Normally I can't let most of my emotions walk around it in case they do something foolish, but like this I can."

"And we are quite happy when you do, since speaking to your fractured self is somewhat confusing at times." Hemon adds.

"Since you can choose to be a whole person, why don't you stay like this?" J'onn asks, thinking that it should be an obvious choice, Raven smirks at him.

"It is elementary my dear J'onzz, all may seem fine now. But my powers are still fueled and controlled by my emotions; all is well now because I am in complete control of all of them. But eventually something will happen that upsets the balance that is even more delicate now than it usually is, the result will be something melted, blown up or otherwise destroyed. After that, things will spiral out of control quickly with more destruction as a result and, well, you get the picture." Raven shrugs, noticing someone opening the door to the Council.

"Raven?" J'onn turns around to see the pigeon feeder he saw weeks ago standing there with her hood down, revealing a female with striking similarity with Raven.

"Hey mom." Raven greets, confirming the suspicion J'onn had at the sight of the woman. "J'onn this is Arella, my mother. Mom, this is J'onn J'onzz one of the Founders of the Justice League."

"Pleasure to meet you." Arella greets J'onn, who notes she has a sour tone, so does Raven.

"It was an honest mistake Mom, it's not his fault." Arella is still resentful of the League for the round of questioning Raven underwent and for what came before it, but nods at this thought she doesn't accept it.

"Well it's good to see yourself assembled again." Arella says to Raven.

"Rage, Rude and Hatred usually drive Arella away when she visits the Council. So she waits outside for the few times Raven assembles herself."Hemon whispers to J'onn, knowing Raven is listening, but Arella is not.

"So Mom would you like to come with us while we show J'onn the city? We can talk on the way." Raven asks.

"We have much speak of." Arella mentions while nodding her acceptance.

_The Watchtower, monitor womb:_

"Don't you look thrilled." John notes as he addresses the Amazon princess, his sarcasm is oozing.

"You know me; monitor duty is always a high note on my schedule. At least I have the Captain to take the calls." Diana replies while casting a bored glaze at Captain Atom. "How about you?"

"I'm good; just gotten everything squared with the Corp in regards to Raven." John replies while Diana eyes him.

"Please tell me you are not planning on dumping her on some deserted planet." John smirks at her, it is one of the standard threats he uses on Wally and a select few when they get on his nerves.

"Actually I am, but she won't be alone." Diana sighs at him, but he just chuckles at her. "Anyways I have been talking to Clark, he's been thinking lately."

"So what has he been thinking about?" Diana asks with a somewhat bored tone, guessing this is just John trying to cheer her up.

"Well most of the old Teen Titans are now past their teen years and we even have one on the roster. Clark is planning on suggesting we do a recruitment drive, since most of them are somewhat rootless."

"You know Bruce might disagree?" Diana asks, knowing at least one former Titan is directly attached to him.

"He might, but it is worth looking into at least." John shrugs.

"So do we have to test them like we do Raven?" Diana asks, wondering how the woman would take it if all of her former teammates suddenly become Leaguers without having to undergo any trials at all.

"You know why we are doing this, but you're right, they should be tested or we should have rounds of screening at least." Diana remembers how often John complains about the League letting too many untried hero's into it, Booster Gold being his favorite example of this.

"I know why **you** are doing it, but I don't believe it's been necessary." She notes.

"She must have done something really impressive while on that island of yours." John notes again.

"You have no idea, but you will hear about it later." She smirks at him, knowing both he and Wally are dying to know and Clark is just really good at hiding his own curiosity.

John sighs at her, knowing he is not getting any more information on the subject. "So how was last night?"

"Wonderful, except having to run off and stop a group of former Titan villains and Raven getting injured as a result."

"Anything serious?" She looks at him, telling him to elaborate. "Both accounts."

"Five broken fingers, but she seems confident it won't have any lasting effect. Other than that, I will give the Titans that they have at least one extraordinarily resilient opponent."

"Thought they were all just a bunch of bank robbers and nut cases?"

"Couldn't the same be applied to Batman's and Flashes usual gallery?" Diana counters.

"Ahh…Good point." John admits, knowing that most of the station, himself included, considered the Gotham based villains to be a particularly dangerous breed. Diana just smirks at him again.

_Raven's mind:_

"Raven you have yet to tell me how I came to wake up in the council chamber?" J'onn asks as the quartet is walking thought the streets of Azerath, all of the ghostly inhabitants are parting to let them thought unobstructed.

"Simple, Wisdom dared Bravery to go in and get you after you fell off the ledge while she had Happy to distract the two others." Raven explains as they enter the square with the statues. "She can wind them up like no one else."

Before J'onn asked, they have been engaging in small talk. With Arella expressing her happiness that Raven had found a new home, but that she personally didn't applaud that it was with a group of warriors. Raven had just smirked at her before shrugging; it had after all not been her choice to have those memories implanted.

"You know I never understood why you insisted on making this, it does go against all you believe in." Raven says as they look at the statue of herself.

"It's as Azar would have wanted it, she was Trigon's enemy after all. And such an event as his undoing deservers to be remembered." Hemon explains. "Remember Raven, Azar always believed that you were the one capable of doing what she and the rest of us were incapable of. I still wonder if she is disapproving or not when it comes to your own beliefs however."

"I was the only one you were allowed to raise your hand against Hemon, all my childhood I was told I was evil and that it was for my own good when you did it. I understood that, for some to be able to live in peace, some have to sacrifice something and in this case that it had to be me. So I choose the road you all turned your back on, to find a way to fight him in a way I could do something, unless I would bear the blame of allowing the universe to suffer under Trigon's heel."

"I am referring to the time afterwards Raven." Hemon says quietly, Raven just shakes her head.

"Since Azerath is no more in the real world, I have no place to retreat to. But on Earth there are so many in need of help, and with the powers I have, I cannot sit on the sideline and do nothing. I know Azerath would have wanted it otherwise, but it is what I believe." Arella and Hemon smiles sadly at her, all of them know they consider the outside world brutish and should embrace their faith.

"There will always be humans that are envious of those who have more and have the will to do bad things to change it." J'onn mentions.

"Sadly that is true." Arealla sighs, Hemon nods in agreement. "So J'onn, what is it you find so interesting about Azerath?" She asks, wanting to change the subject before Raven has to separate again.

"When I visited last time, I was reminded of a Martian legend where my people were greatly threatened. A hero arose amongst us and offered to hide the Martian race within his mind, so that he could escape and carry them all to safety. Alas sheltering so many minds within his own made him go mad as soon as his job was complete." J'onn explains.

"So you fear our presence here may cause the same with Raven?" Hemon asks.

"I worried initially that it might, but you have been here for years with only beneficial effects. I wanted to observe you since this is a first for me, that during my time on Earth, that I have encountered anything like this." Hemon and Arella nod their understanding.

"You are welcome to observe then." Hemon say's after getting the nod of approval from Raven, they are after all, still inside her mind.

Later that day, J'onn and Raven resume their normal forms, sitting cross legged a little further from each other in the garden than they remember. The first thing Raven notices is the stabbing pain in her hands, telling her there is still some healing to do. But she also feels calm and centered, as if she had just been doing her normal meditation and that she is hungry.

"You had a nice family." She says.

"Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed the visit. And I must say your mind is a fascinating place to wander, when one is allowed to." He replies with a smirk. "But dangerous in some places."

"I figured you would have demanded to see those parts of my mind if you found out about them afterwards and your wife agreed to that you'd be like that."

"I would." J'onn confirms, if nothing, amongst human he is almost overconfident in his own abilities in psychic matters. "May I enquire to the event Bravery felt ended her time as being in control?" He asks.

"Well…I was meditating at night and I had removed my dress while doing it. Just when I was feeling ready to go to bed the goddess Aphrodite had appeared behind me, because…she, eh, hoped to catch me in bed with someone." This has J'onn quirk an eyebrow before nodding noticing how blushed she's become.

"Ah, as punctual as one could wish, Miss Raven, Mister Jones, the afternoon tea is about to be served on the balcony." Alfred says as he nears the pair, his job has him restrained from simply shouting to them from the door.

"Ah, well, that sounds good Alfred, what time is it?" Raven asks as she notices the sun is shining down on them, but it has passed its zenith, hoping it would be enough to hide her blush from him.

"The clock is just about to strike two in the afternoon Miss Raven." Alfred replies before turning to J'onn. "I will have the footage recorded saved to a disc for you Mister Jones." This causes Raven to quirk an eyebrow at J'onn.

"Thank you Alfred." He says before turning to Raven to explain. "As there was no one to watch us dance, I asked Alfred to record it for me."

"Ah." Ravens own curiosity creeps up on her; _"I wonder what we looked like?"_

"I shall go prepare the tea. Master Bruce should be joining us at any moment." Alfred mentions before turning back to the mansion. As Alfred disappears into the house, Raven and J'onn both hear and senses Bruce's return. Hearing the engines of his car and the pebbles it is displacing and sensing his mood, which is surprisingly upbeat.

"I wonder if Alfred is psychic?" Raven asks out loud, wondering how the elderly man always seems to know.

"I doubt it." J'onn says flatly, failing to catch one of the few jokes Raven has done that does not involve sarcasm. But then again the League could have told her J'onn has the humor of a rock, or he chooses just not to show he has one. In a strange way J'onn has attracted the dubious attention of the Flash because of this, who very much like Beastboy used to do with Raven, tries to make him laugh, and always fails.

* * *

**Authors notes: **And that concludes the Ch'ar Men'nas. Next; the Green Lantern.

R&R


	36. Chapter 36

15 minutes after Bruce's return, Raven, J'onn and the Wayne's are enjoying the afternoon weather along with the tea, butter and buns, with Raven still using her telekinesis to move the things she needed to. Unknown to her Bruce was taking careful notice of how she was handling it.

"So how did it go?" Bruce asks with a wry smile, he knows he should wait for the meetings like the others but J'onn smirks back at him.

"It was interesting, but you will have to wait for the meeting. I have been meaning to ask; is Raven joining us at this, or are we behind closed doors?" J'onn asks.

"We will have her with us when we hear about how everything went down, but if any evaluation is needed it will be behind closed doors. I was thinking Ravens friends would like to hear how everything went." Bruce answers, knowing that asides from her time with Superman, Cyborg and Beastboy are very much in the dark. "By the way Raven I thought you'd want to see this, page 8." He says as he hands her the news paper he had read at the office, Raven levitates it and opens it on the page. Remaining quiet as she reads the article about herself.

"Well being called an angel is new, but I'm relieved Cole is feeling better." She notes before handing Richard the paper.

"Leaves you as the only casualty on the good guy's side." Tim adds, aware that Raven would probably not be happy to be put in the same boat as Dr. Light, but still gets a light grumble from her.

"On that note, Bruce I need to go into a healing trance to mend my fingers, usually I am unresponsive and floating when I do this." Bruce understands her unspoken question.

"Your room will be fine Raven, as long as things don't start to fly around." He says with a smirk. "Do you have any idea how long it will take?"

"Not really, my perception of time also tends to slip and it depends on the damage I have to heal." Raven says while remembering going into trance once and waking up again three days later.

"Green Lantern will undoubtedly want to start immediately when he see's J'onn again on the station." Bruce mentions, while looking at J'onn.

"We could postpone that for a while, if I can watch the footage here." The Martian replies, Bruce nods at him.

"Seems I'd better get started then." Raven says before sinking through the floor.

In the meantime, on Themyscira, two amazons are in the midst of what has become a daily ritual for them.

"Again sister." Penelope calls for the fallen Philipus to rise again. "You are improving."

"I wonder how sister Raven managed to learn all of this." Philipus asks as she gets to her feet again, since Raven had left, Philipus had partitioned for daily unarmed combat training with Penelope. Philipus had felt humiliated after the fight with the royal guard, in part because she had been taken out without a proper fight and in part because of Raven. An outsider, while formidable, but still an outsider, had dispatched her opponent with such ease.

"From what I have heard, she was part of a unit similar to the one Diana is a part of. They were only children, when they grew up and parted ways, she taught herself the skills, in case she would find herself without her other talents." Penelope replies while falling into a waiting stance. "As I have understood, the Dark One's son led that team." The Amazons close to Diana had all received descriptions of the founding Leaguers when Diana was allowed to return home after restoring Hades to his throne, it had not passed them by that Diana spoke almost admiringly of Batman. One of the things that had stayed with them was that the Princess regularly sparred with the mortal man, and that he held his ground against her.

"You think he would be as formidable as his father?" Philipus asks while dropping into an aggressive stance, knowing Penelope has a desire to test herself against the Dark One, like Artemis.

"I am certain he is, so in a way I figure Raven has indirectly learned her craft from him."

"And adding her own touch to it." Philipus says as she takes one step towards Penelope. The pair is silent for a few moments as they exchange blows before Penelope gets hold of and quickly tosses Philipus to the ground.

"That touch was actually quite scary." Penelope says as she offers her hand to her fallen sister.

"I agree sister." It was much to the envy of those who had not seen the fight between Raven and Diana, since all those who had, seemed to have developed a favorite moment of the fight. Some liked the rapid teleportation Raven had pulled off, some preferred Diana's deflecting of makeshift projectiles and some liked the fight as a whole.

_Later that night, Wayne Manor:_

Raven awakens from her trance in the middle of the night, testing her fingers, she is satisfied that they are completely healed. While she can't mend the broken bones of others, her own are another matter, but she isn't sure why she has that limit. Having unwrapped the bandages and taken off the stabilizers, she heads out of her room to find a trashcan she can deposit them in safely, it wouldn't do to have someone suspect anything. Deciding to head to the infirmary she walks down the stairs and down the hallways of the mansion, on the way she passes one of the living rooms, where the blue glow of the TV is showing on the wall. Wondering who is watching TV at this hour, Raven takes a peek through the door way. Spotting J'onn watching a green and black piece of putty dance around on the screen, from her position Raven notes he is lost in thought, since he doesn't notice her. Deciding she'd better leave him alone, she completes her original errant before heading back to bed, after all tomorrow she has a meeting with a certain Lantern.

During the night, John sends word for Raven to pack for a field trip; meaning a tent, spare clothes, hygiene articles and basic camp kit to last a few days. The Bat-clan had a chuckle at this, guessing John had to take Raven into a desert to get her to sleep in a tent, but Bruce had Alfred packed it anyways. Bruce had just handed Alfred a list of what would be needed and where he would find it in the cave in case he had forgotten. The end result is a black backpack Richard jokes, Raven could have hidden inside while she lived in the tower; he received a playful slap on the back of the head for his effort.

"So you got all you need?" Richard asks Raven as he looks at the backpack leaning against the railing of the main staircase.

"Probably more than I will need, but I hope so." She replies; they are waiting for J'onn to appear, having been pulled aside for a talk with Bruce, which suited Richard just fine.

"You know Cy expects to be done building within the week?" He asks, having spoken to the man while Raven was busy.

"I figured it would be right about now." She sighs. "Richard, promise me you will let me know when he is done." He gives her a look urging her to continue. "As I told Bruce, making friends with the League is a goal for me, but Starfire matters more." He nods at this.

"I will Rae. Actually, before I forget it and in case we need to; we will need to pick you up somewhere else while en route, since we will need the League's approval to transport Blackfire to Tamaran."

"Which may prove difficulty if I go AWOL." She finishes for him. "Titan Island, pick me up there. I have another concern; that Green Lantern may decide to drag me into deep space."

"We will wait for you Rae, we need you to translate and we can't guarantee Tamaran will be friendly." Raven sighs at this, which Richard notices. "We will bring her back."

"I know, I just can't help wondering what she has gone through these last years, while the rest of us have been continuing our normal lives here? Even I can't compare to what she might have gone though." She pauses for a second before asking; "Richard, what are we going to do when we get her?" Richard knows what she is referring to, because he has been wondering the same. There is the very likely possibility their old friend is anything from traumatized to comatose, the worst case scenario Richard can think of is that Starfire will be blaming them for her suffering.

"We will get her the very best care we can Rae, but when we see her, we retrieve her and leave as fast as possible. We don't need them to have further reason to fight us." He says while taking on a serious face, his way of burying the emotions running though him.

"And if they want to fight anyways?"

Richard smirks at her question. "Then I guess we will see why Wonder Woman holds you in so high regard." Raven shrugs and rolls her eyes.

"There is more to me than brawn you know?"

"Infinitely more, but you tend to hide it all." He replies still smirking. "But considering even Tamaran knows of Trigon, you may be able to intimidate them."

"Unfortunately I can't argue with that." She says, while noticing Bruce and J'onn appearing from the clock leading into the cave. "Ready J'onn?"

"I am." The Martian replies flatly.

"Are you sure you have everything?" Bruce asks, Richard is oddly reminded of a dad seeing his kid off to a school trip.

"I got everything you have packed for me, thank you for letting me borrow it all." Raven confirms, adding a small smile to the last.

"It's there to be used." Bruce replies with a smirk of his own. Unseen by most of them, Alfred comes into the room as well. "Anyways take care." He says while offering her a hand to shake, which she does, he does note there is a certain amount of strength in it.

"Don't worry, I will." Raven assures.

"I won't say be careful, since I know you. But good luck." Richard says after Bruce lets go, offering her a hand as well after a short but frantic discussion in his head if he should be the gentleman or the friend with feelings, deciding on the first option.

"Thank you, depending on what he's cooked up I might need it." Raven replies, she and Richard lock eyes for a second, something they both find a little weird, but neither can really say why. It takes a cough from Alfred for them to notice they are holding hands, Bruce chuckles on the inside.

"I would also want to wish Miss Raven a round of luck." Alfred says while smiling slightly. "And do be careful out there."

"I will and thank you Alfred. Give my best to Tim." She says while smiling to the old man. She grabs her backpack in her powers and turns to J'onn. "Shall we get going?" He nods at her before his eyes begin to glow.

"J'onn to Watchtower, we are ready." No one besides J'onn hears a reply, but he and Raven are suddenly surrounded by a blue glow before they both vanish.

"She is a very resilient young woman, though her hair leaves something to be desired." Alfred says to no one in particular.

"Tougher than most Al, but her hair is natural as far as I know." Richard replies, for some reason he feels the mansion is suddenly emptier than before.

"A byproduct of her heritage, like her skin, I suspect." Bruce ads, to which Richard concurs.

"She once mentioned her mother's hair turned the same shade of purple when she was conceived." Richard continues, it had been one of the things brushed that final night in the tower, Arella used to have very dark hair but during the pregnancy the color had slowly changed.

"I must say I was wondering if it was just a trend she was following, like some of the youngsters nowadays." Alfred continues. Richard smirks inwardly; at least Alfred has learned something new today.

Raven and J'onn materializes on the teleportation pads in the main hall of the space station. Green Arrow gives them a friendly wave from his perch at the monitors before turning to someone besides him.

"Lantern will be here shortly, good luck." J'onn says before becoming transparent and sinks through the floor. Raven picks up her bag, slinging one strap over her shoulder and walks down the stairs.

"Raven?!" Someone's yell draws Ravens attention back to the monitor womb, where a red clad ginger head stands next to Green Arrow, with a look of disbelief on his face. Just as Raven locks eyes with him, equally surprised to see him, as he runs to the wall mounted stairs and almost falls down. Raven doesn't move as he runs across the floor and scoops her up in a tight hug, with the bag still over Ravens shoulder. "Dear God, it's really you!" He laughs. "Wait till I tell the others!"

"Speedy, you are hugging me." Raven says quietly, Speedy puts her down quickly, suddenly remembering something.

"It really is you." He says with a grin.

"It is and the West Team knows." She replies with a grin on her own. "What are you doing up here? Aren't you supposed to be in Steel City?"

"Erm, well I guess you missed it. Sometime after you vanished Titans East was shut down by the city, like you we had nothing to do and the city decided they needed the money elsewhere." Roy says while scratching the back of his neck.

"So they kicked you out." Raven finishes, Speedy nods.

"They did, Aqualad went home so did Mas and Menos and B hooked up with Herald after she broke up with Cyborg. And I went home as well, to Robin Hood up there." He says while throwing a thumb in Green Arrow's direction. "And after he got dragged up here, he decided to bring me along."

"Like I could leave you alone in the house Roy!" Green Arrow yells from his perch, with a smirk on his face. Raven notices Speedy's spirit drops rapidly, as if he is reliving a bad memory.

"What's wrong?" She asks while putting the backpack down in front of her.

"That obvious is it?" He shrugs. "I better tell you this before you hear it from someone else. After Titans West disbanded, we on the East Coast thought it was our time to shine, being the oldest team and all that. It went to my head; I became overconfident as everything seemed to go smoothly. I began losing the sense of thrill I always had when I put on the mask, and I found I couldn't live without it…I did something very stupid and Kid Flash caught me doing it."

"Roy, you did drugs?!" Raven asks in disbelief she asks after connecting the dots, for all the time she has known him, Roy has always seemed like a Richard clone, just with more joy and self confidence. Raven quickly dispels the thought she has of what would happen to Richard if he turns down the same road?

Roy nods at her, she can feel the shame washing off him while he stares at the floor. "Heroin. We had Jinx and Kid Flash move in after the Brotherhood thing. KF did the right thing of course; he told the others. Everything went downhill from there, I refused going into treatment, and B didn't want to see me outside the tower in tights till I did. It went on like that for a month till the city came with the eviction notice. When I moved home, the shit continued there. Oliver found out, of course, and threatened to kick me out unless I straightened out. I have been clean for over a year now, but he doesn't trust me to be alone anymore."

"Can you blame him?"

"No, I am not sure I can trust myself anymore either." He sighs.

"Does anyone outside of Titans East know?"

"Well there's you, now, and when did Robin not know everything about his team? I figure Oliver has told Batman and from there to Robin." Raven doubts Richard knows, while she has no doubt Batman knows or at the very least suspects, Richard has had no reason to look into Roy Harper, actually he hasn't even mentioned once he knows Speedy is a Leaguer.

"I don't need to say how disappointed I am in you?" She says while fixating him with a hard stare and she really was, she had thought they were all better than to fall to such things.

"No, no you don't, I know now how stupid I was and I am still amazed the old Titan's East will even talk to me. But can you forgive me for being that stupid?" He asks while his mask makes the impression of having pleading eyes behind it, Raven stares at him for a few seconds, to him it feels like forever.

"I am disappointed that you chose the way you did Roy, but I can feel your shame over it. There is nothing for me to forgive if the others have." He instantly seems relieved at her words.

"I see you have packed." A deep voice sounds to Raven's left, the two former Titans turn to see Green Lantern walking towards them.

"Yup, shall we get going then?" Raven replies as she picks up her backpack again, John nods at her.

"Follow me." He says before turning back towards the corridor he came from.

"Wait you're going now?" Roy asks as if he is being cheated.

"Been tagging along League Founders for weeks Roy, Green Lantern is the last." Raven replies while pushing past him. "It was nice seeing you again." She doesn't see the downhearted look on his face as he disappears out of her view.

"It was nice seeing you too." He says quietly as the sliding doors close behind Raven, a sudden spark flares inside of him and he runs up to him mentor who is hiding his smirk. "Hey Ollie how long has Raven been here?"

"I didn't see it myself, but I heard the big guns got something mixed up and jumped her in Gotham about three weeks ago. When they tried to bully her up here, she flipped and punched Diana into the ground." Ollie explains while putting his feet up on the console in front of him. "Serves her right too, trying to put her boot on her."

"You must have your facts wrong, Raven isn't the physical type." Roy tries to amuse the old leftie who had this deep rooted opinion that the League was border lining on becoming oppressive tyrants that would use its vast powers to control the world already, sometimes he felt justified about that. And sometimes he would tell Roy that they were helping keeping the League in line as some of the very few, Roy doubted things were as bad as that.

"All I heard Roy, if you want facts, you should probably ask Diana, Batman or those two Titan buddies of yours that are camping in the Metropolis Hall." Roy's jaw simply drops, Ollie has known two of his old friends have been within spitting distance and he has not said anything.

Green Lantern and Raven emerge into the hangar from the corridor, Raven notes there are a few pieces of cloth apparently attached to nothing, designating where Diana's invisible plane is currently parked.

"Is it a secret how far away we are going?" She finally asks, having thought of asking ever since he appeared.

"Expecting a call?" He asks without turning.

"Kinda."

"Well you will be outside reception range, unless you have a phone that can reach outside the solar system." Raven curses inwardly, Starfire's rescue will be delayed.

"_Richard?"_ She sends.

"_Raven?"_

"_I will be going outside of the solar system, I am pretty sure we will be outside of contact."_ She explains.

"_We will wait for you Rae, good luck." _She sighs; he is still treating it like a phone.

"So does this place have a name?" She asks, without hope of recognizing the name.

"Mogo." John says, outside of Ravens field of vision he lets on a small smirk. "Stand close." He instructs before they are both surrounded by a green bubble that lifts them off the hangar floor and begins their journey.

Raven, having seen space several times before, quickly grows bored and John is not trying to initiate conversation, so she settles for meditating. _"Who knows, I might need it."_

_Tower of Fate, Salem;_

Exhausted from a long night of flying, Shayera finally lands at the Tower of Fate in the early morning hours. She is tired and warm from the flight, a headache is making itself known and all in all, her trip to Jump City had been for nothing. The only ones that actually claimed Raven was evil, was the tabloids and those who believed those kinds of journalists. Sure, lots of people were scared of her, but she never harmed anyone who wasn't asking for it. The only thing she might have, is the dragon, of all things. According to all asked, Raven had offered it no mercy.

"_And the lizard is a weak argument." _She muses as she steps though the invisible doorway. _"Diana will no doubt applaud the action, the others will be torn between if it deserved the option or not."_

"You think too loudly." Dr. Fate materializes in front of her as she scales the first of many stairs; she gives him a disbelieving look.

"How did you..?"

"I didn't, but you are only scowling when you are upset." He calmly notes, she realizes he is having an inward chuckle at her expense.

"I'm really not in the mood Kent, it's been a long a fruitless journey for me." She sighs.

"You realize you may be chasing a ghost?" He asks, in a serious tone.

"What do you mean?"

"Raven may have had nothing to do with Dr. Destiny's attack on you." He says flatly.

"Excuse me for wanting proof of that fact." She replies while pushing past him.

"Shayera, if they were really in league with each other. They could have psychic communications with each other to time it; you would never find proof of. Also, if they were, why would she help you when you were at your weakest and why does Dr. Destiny have a broken arm now?"

"For all we know she could have paid him for it." Shayera retorts.

"Paid him to act scared, then fall down a flight of stairs and break an arm. Destiny is not motivated by money Shayera, he wants respect. Murdering a Leaguer is a way of doing it and he would have noticed J'onn's inability to enter your mind during your first encounter." Fate explains without changing his tone, well knowing Shayera is a stubborn woman and a grumpy one at the moment.

"So you're saying I just happened to be targeted because I am harder to save than the rest?" She replies while crossing her arms.

"Yes." Fate says flatly.

"Forgive me, but until I am satisfied, I will still be suspicious of her. Everyone is around me." Fate just nods at her while wondering if she had been to visit Destiny yet. "What have you found on her?"

"I have nothing conclusive about her." Fate replies and gets a look prompting him to explain. "She is not old enough to feature in my library, not in person. However as I suspected, she fits quite a few doomsday prophecies, all whom foretell the coming of Scarth, Surtr, Drez and number of other names for Trigon. However, they all follow the same pattern; the child of the Devil will deliver the world to him, they never go beyond that however." He adds the last bit quickly.

"What if all of what's already happened was a ruse, to make us think he was gone or if she is any better?" Shayera continues and get a look from Fate. "You said it yourself; she's the daughter of pure evil."

"But she is not the evil herself." Fate replies getting a deep sigh.

"Then why are you still looking?" She asks with defeat leaking into her voice.

"Because there are many things that will have changed for her with the fall of Trigon, things I am not sure she is even aware of. But most obvious of all Shayera, is that she will have freed herself of his influence, to make her own fate."

"Which can end up being something we will all come to regret." Shayera sighs as she reaches the door to her room. "I need to rest, if you have anything more I will hear about it tomorrow. Good night." She says before entering and closes the door after her, leaving the mage behind.

She doesn't see him shake his head at the door after it's closed. _"If only you fully understood demons." _He thinks to himself.

_Somewhere in space:_

As she has mentioned to her friends when asked, politely and not while she is doing it, the goal of Raven's meditation is to clear hear head of any unwanted thoughts that may upset her emotional balance. Sometimes she does this by thinking about nothing, but at other times she needs to think even more; events that have troubled or upset her are dissected and analyzed until she can look at them again without being emotionally stirred. Like the time Richard was forced to become Slade's unwilling apprentice and the events surrounding the creation of the Red-X suit.

At first Raven had thought it was his own fault that he ended up the way he did, his own inability to confide in his friends, ask for their help, to admit he was out where he couldn't handle it alone. His obsession with Slade, to prove he needed no one to take down the elusive mastermind. Meditating upon both matters had enabled Raven to see past most of that.

His need to do it alone stemmed from two sources, according to Raven's analysis; the first being the fact that he was the only one on the team without any meta-human abilities, which would make many feel inadequate, much less to be the leader of said team. But he did what he could, and it was much more than what should be asked of him. The other source was his need for independent victories; which came from his break with Batman and what came before it.

During their occasional talks, Richard had revealed that he always felt inadequate when being around Batman, the student who still had much to learn from the master. Moving to Jump City was his way of telling Batman that he could handle himself and when Slade appeared, Richard had found his Joker. Unfortunately this single mindedness and determination to bring Slade to justice and prove he was as good as his mentor turned into an obsession, which made him easy for Slade to get to.

After he had become Slades apprentice and ensuring his later freedom, Raven had meditated hard upon the whole matter. She looked at everything that had happened between the Titans, Robin and Slade. She had come to the conclusion that Slade had targeted Robin from the very start; she and the other Titans were only a minor annoyance to him.

Slade had, ever since revealing his existence, been playing Robin, set up pointless fights, left clues that led nowhere and even going to far as making robots in his likeness for them to beat up, only to make Robin think he may have won or had an edge over his opponent, only to find himself right where Slade wanted him. Then when Slade finally made his move and left a map with Cinderblock, Robin could no longer hold back and walked straight into Slade's trap. Looking back, Raven knows she is still partly blaming Robin for charging so recklessly into that trap, while the rest of them were trying to disarm a faux bomb, even by then he should have known he couldn't take Slade on alone.

Her logical mind came to the conclusion that Robin should have come to them, Slade would have slipped away again, most likely, but Robin would have been safe. But he didn't. Raven realized that when Robin knew what Slade had done to his friends, he had no choice even if it pained him to do so. She came to realize Slade actually made one mistake during it all; he pushed Robin too hard and too far, and when Slade finally had him, Robin hated him with every fiber of his being. At that time, Raven had finally come to the conclusion that she couldn't blame Robin for anything, since she was still waging her own personal war against Trigon in complete secrecy.

The act of meditation itself usually leaves Raven without sense of time, which is part of the idea behind relaxing while meditating. But since the Titans left Jump City, Raven has mastered the art of being able to meditate while being aware of her surroundings if she chooses to, which is not in this moment. This degree of control was impossible to attain while living with the others, as they had all seen her open eyes as an invitation to address her. Right now during the journey in space, Raven has definitely lost her perception of time and place. Being in a silent green bubble that is moving at the speed of light will do that. There is no light to indicate time of day, no sensation that indicates they are even moving and the only sound she can hear is John's calm breathing and her own heartbeat.

"We're here kiddo." John says the first thing he has said during the flight.

She opens her eyes and sees a star shining brightly in their faces as they leave the tunnel of light, between them and the star is a large planet. Raven can't see much of it as they are approaching it from its night side, only near the edge facing the star can she see traces of greens and blues hidden beneath the clouds of the world. On the night side Raven notes only one thing, the absence of light that would indicate civilization. To her other senses however, Raven feels there is definitely something or someone on the planet, but she can't put a finger on what it might be, but she guesses it must be big since she can sense it from space.

"Looks nice." She replies while John takes them through the atmosphere. "So what are we doing here?"

"We are going to play a little game of hide and seek." John replies while their bubble is encased in clouds.

"Excuse me?"

"I am going to drop you off here for a few days, then I'll come back with some of my friends and we are going to find you. Depending on how long it takes for us to find you with determine your score." John explains while sporting an amused grin, Raven puts on her stone face.

"You realize I can walk to other dimensions right?"

"I will know if you move off the planet, believe me. Get your pack ready." He instructs while they come near to canopy of the forest below.

"So you are leaving me alone on a strange planet till you feel like coming back to get me." Raven surmises with a sour tone.

"Pretty much. Watch that first step." Suddenly the bubble disappears under her leaving her to fall the rest of the way, still moving at the same speed the bubble was. The action is so sudden Raven doesn't have time to levitate herself before she is tearing through the branches and leaves of the trees before coming to an abrupt halt as she collides with a massive tree trunk before falling to the ground, unconscious. John only watched till she disappeared amongst the trees before he flies back into space, assuming one that could slap Diana around could handle a rough landing, not knowing she was out cold.


	37. Mission Mogo

Raven wakes up, several hours after the landing, to the sound of buzzing insects, an aching head and the stuffy air of the jungle around her. Inside her head, a new addition is made in Rage's domain, one bald black man with a fancy ring.

"Ow…" She groans as she opens her eyes to see the forest canopy above her, lifting her head and looking around she confirms her initial suspicion; she is resting on her backpack amongst the roots of the tree she slammed into, and that her head hurts. Slipping off the backpack, as she tries to rise she feels that she has at least a few compressed ribs to tell of the collision. Sitting up slowly, her damaged ribs are quickly forgotten when she catches sigh of her right leg; where a thin bark-less branch, around half a centimeter in diameter, has impaled her through her thigh.

"Just…perfect…" Raven sighs with grinding teeth before forcing herself to inspect the wound. It is not a serious injury, the branch has missed the large vein, and the branches presence has apparently prevented any insects from getting to the wound. Inspecting the branch she discovers the stick is thicker and longer on the side beneath her leg, leaving two centimeters of it sticking out of her on the top. Fighting though the pain in her leg that is beginning to dawn on her, she considers her options. She could teleport herself off the stick, but she can feel she will need every ounce of energy she has to mend the wound, so she decides against it. She realizes another problem, she is sitting on the backpack, which is resting in a hole between the roots and the medical kit is in a pouch on the front. Sighting deeply, she unclasps her cloak and rips some wide strips out of it before she prepares herself for the pain that will come. Taking a few deep breaths she uses both her hands to lift her leg off the branch that is fortunately embedded amongst the roots beneath her with a cry of pain. Working quickly though the tears, she bandages the wound; knowing she can't heal the wound now with the pain smashing the focus she needs to do conjure the power, she can only conjure enough to stem the bleeding. Finishing the tight bandaging of the wound, she slumps back onto the backpack, trying to calm herself and trying to ignore the pain. In an attempt to forget her leg, she lets her bloody hands wander her body to seek out any other injuries, coming back with minor scratches and the compressed ribs.

"Well this is off to great start." She mutters, a part of her mind just wants to let her rest here till she is healed, but another part of her is telling her to get up. _"I am wounded and bleeding in the jungle, I need to get somewhere safe before I can rest and heal."_

Slowly, while supporting herself on the roots, she tries to stand up, failing at first when she realizes she can't support herself on her injured leg, much less carry the heavy backpack. Looking around herself she spots another branch on the jungle floor in front of her, it is shorter than herself and has a handle like end; _"Perfect walking stick, if it's not half rotten."_ She decides to get the stick, the way to it is across several roots and her bruised ribs and her leg protest painfully as she crawls on her belly over them. Getting hold of the stick and testing it strength, she tries to get up again, this time succeeding by leaning her right armpit on the stick's handle. _"Now, where to go?"_ Thinking, she remembers a few rocky outcrops sticking out of the jungle a little distance back the way she came flying._ "Might as well check if there is a cave." _Moving slowly and with irregular steps, she makes her way in the direction, leaving her backpack and the remains of her cloak behind.

From the position of the sun in the sky, if it had been on Earth, Raven notes to herself, it has taken her an hour at least to get to the rocks, but it felt longer. Now that she is here, she notes it will be hard to climb the rocks, but she has to get off the forest floor and away from any potential predators, so slowly but surely she makes her way up. About 10 meters up, she comes to a ledge she, has to jump slightly to reach. But they pain in her leg is rewarded when Raven pulls herself up, hidden from her view from below, the ledge is hiding a deep cave. It has a low entrance that forces Raven to duck her head, but inside, it is dry and thankfully seemingly uninhabited. While the entrance is only around one and a half meters tall and a little wider than one across, the inside is much larger, going some 15 meters into the back and is some 10 meters across with a roughly ellipse shaped floor and around 2,5m to the ceiling where there is a small hole where the light comes through.

"Boo-yah." Raven says quietly, as she has found herself a camp site. Hobbling into the back of the cave where a section of the floor rises to form a ledge, she sits herself down before setting a few wards in case something does live here. Finally ready, she lies down and enters her trance, while her body begins to float above the floor.

She wakes up again several hours later, hungry, but healed. Taking her stick with her, she climbs down the rocks and enters the jungle again. After much searching, she comes across her backpack, still resting between the roots of the tree, but seeing no trace of the remains of her cloak. Pulling the backpack free, she decides against searching it for anything edible now.

"_Green Lantern will be coming back at some point to find me. If he thinks it will be easy, he will be in for a surprise."_ Being healed and hungry, and having time to think while she walked, also the time had given her time to stoke the fire of her anger against the man. Coming to the decision that; she will change the nature of game. "His goal is seek. Mine will be hunt." With a goal in her head she heads back to the cave to plan and prepare.

Meanwhile the unsuspecting John Steward is touching down on Oa, center of the universe, home of the Guardians and home world of the Green Lantern Corps. The world itself is barren, housing only a single massive dome shaped structure on the surface, easily the size of a city, where John is landing now on a landing pad where he can see only one figure waiting for him.

"Hey there poozer." Kilowog greets his old friend with his deep voice.

"Hey Kilowog, how are the new recruit handling?" John replies, expecting an assuming reply from the big pink alien.

Kiliwog snorts. "I tell ya Jahn, they get worse every season. This bunch is still struggling with basic shapes!" John smirks, Kilowogs definition of simple could turn out to be quite complex at times. "Did you drop off that rookie of yours?"

"I did; Mogo will take it from there. Have you heard from the others?"

"Yup Kat and Kyle will come along, Kat thinks a search and rescue will be good practice for him. How did the Guardians take it?"

"The less they know the better." John smirks, revealing that his superiors are in the dark about it all.

"They are gonna flip if they find out…does Mogo know?" Kilowog notes.

"I told him to alert me if she leaves or is badly injured, nothing more."

"You're walking the thin line John." Kilowog warns knowing that the Guardians weren't easily amused by anything.

"I know, but it is necessary." John says confidently before heading inside.

In the central part of the structure, the Guardians of Oa are beginning to discuss recent events they have just become aware of.

"Green Lantern Mogo reports an individual deposited on his surface, one who seems to harbor a certain dislike for Green Lantern of sector 2814, John Steward, who deposited her there." One of the small blue men says.

"Many harbor a dislike to our Corp, but Green Lantern Mogo insists her dislike stems purely from the injuries she sustained while being delivered onto his surface." Another continues.

"Apparently she is there as part of a test, but the events so far has changed the goals she had previously agreed to." A third adds.

"Will she prove a threat?" Another continues.

"Unlikely. More worrying is Green Lantern Stewards commandeering of Corp personnel without permission."

"Green Lantern Mogo reports he senses a rare balance within the woman, she may prove useful." The only one of the males that looks different than the others, due to him having his hair in a ponytail, adds.

"Her emotional balance, while formidable, will be clouding her potential willpower." Another speculates.

"We must observe her further, if needed we will interfere." The first finishes as the group returns to observe the glowing orb in their midst displaying Raven walking through the jungle.

After hauling her backpack back to the cave, Raven has spilled its contents onto the floor to check what she can use and what she can't. The immediate concern is water, of which she only has about 1 liter of. Another concern is food, but she expects to find something edible in the jungle. Having stumbled around in the jungles of Asia has taught her a few things about surviving in a place like this.

"Ok, Bat-tent. Check." She says eyeing the rolled up bundle of black fabric and strings. Actually it is a bivouac, meant to allow the occupant to remain hidden on the ground while sleeping. But Raven has no intention of sleeping on the ground while there are perfectly good trees available.

"18 lunch cookies; check." She continues at the pack, she had already eaten two of the original 20 cookies to sate her hunger. To her, that's a full meal.

"Water flask, check."

"Med kit, check." A small black pouch containing only the most necessary items for field dressings.

"Cooking gear, check." Set consists of a pot with a pan as a lid, with a smaller pot inside the big one. Inside the small pot is a detached handle that fits both, a small metal tray and a cardboard box with alcohol tablets to make fire with. Also inside is a single knife, fork and spoon and a small box of matches. Raven notes that every single item, including the edge of the knife is blackened. She guesses this is the stuff you want if you're camping in a place you don't want to be seen in.

"Cold weather gear, check." The set is basically a thin insulated jacket and a pair of pants along with a pair of gloves and two small bags mean to be hand warmers, when the two chemicals inside are mixed.

"Wet weather gear, check." Actually it is two sets, one large jacket meant to be worn over any other clothes, and a regular two piece set with a jacket and a pair of pants. Raven decides to use the large jacket as her temporary cloak when she will need to rest.

"One big knife, check." Raven wonders if machete is a better word for the thing. Meant for cutting vines and gutting fish, the knife comes with a holster meant to be strapped around the left thigh of a person. She assumes this is because Batman and Robin don't usually have any spare room on their belts. Figuring it might come in handy in places where she can't use her powers, she straps the holster on, which feels funny at first.

"Sleeping bag, check." Like the tent, it is in a very fashionable black.

"Toilet articles, check." An unused toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and two rolls of rough green toilet paper. Raven dreads the moment she is going to have to use those, but it beats leaves.

"Rope, check." Thin, black and around 10 meters of it.

"Folding shovel-axe with saw, check." Raven admits this thing is kinda smart. When needed, the collapsible shaft can be extended to twice its folded length. When collapsed it is no longer than the shovel head that by adjusting on a smaller handle can be folded so the tip points up at the shaft. Also the shovel head can be fixated halfway to form a sort of pick axe. Lastly, by unfastening the butt of the shaft a short saw blade can be pulled out and fastened on the bottom.

"Wristwatch and compass, check." The watch is one of the sturdy models made for men who regularly walk around in the wilds, with a black plastic strap and a darkened clock house and self illuminating hands and numbers, underneath the watch is the compass. She really doubts it will be of any use to her, the planet she is on could have a vastly different rotational speed than Earth, and she could be sitting on its magnetic pole for all she knows. But she straps it on anyways, so she will at least have some perception of time besides the sun.

"Pen and pencil, check."

"Right then, I've got a lot of stuff and a lot I can't use." She sighs as she begins packing the winter gear back into the backpack. _"Better find out what is worth eating around here and scout out the area."_

While leaving the cave she has come to the realization that she is going to be facing a group of trained men with the power of their imagination on their finger tips, if she is going to succeed, she will need to know a large area of the forest, and preferably not anywhere near her crash site. If she is lucky the group will split up in an attempt to find her faster, which will make it easier to take them down.

Later that night Raven returns to the cave, having found several interesting locations she can use, and that there are various fruits she can live off without cooking them, also she has found a small stream with fresh water. According to her watch at least 8 hours have passed since she headed out, but it has only been dark for about an hour. Doing a quick check that nothing has been disturbed, she returns to the jungle to find a suitable tree to attach herself to.

"She seems to be resourceful and determined." One of the Guardians mentions. They have spent the better part of their day monitoring Raven and her activities; steadily they had changed their perception, coming to the conclusion there is definitely more to Raven than what is seen on the outside. And that she could prove a serious threat to a member of their Corps if she catches them unaware after realizing she is some kind of psychic, but for now they have not looked any closer.

"Does she seek to injure or kill?" Another asks.

"Unknown." A third says shortly.

"Shall we inform Green Lantern, John Steward, of the development?" Another asks.

"No." The one with the ponytail says.

"She is not human." One of the others notes as Raven is seen attaching herself upside down to a thick tree branch.

"Not entirely." The first speaker continues.

"She will require closer observation." The one with the pony-tail finishes, the others have noted that he does seem more interested than they did, but he is considered the oddball of the group.

Raven wakes up at the crack of dawn, having unintentionally turned herself so she receives the full view of the rising sun, and even she can't sleep through that. Yawning and shifting a little in her impromptu cloak, she takes a look at the time, initially being a bit confused.

"19:07? That's not right." It then she remembers she is on a strange planet, far from home and what she needs to do.

Her entire day passes with her working on the various traps, trails and lures she has planned to greet the Green Lanterns with. Currently she has six sites where she expects to ambush the supposed rescue team. The first being the Marsh; a large area of still, blackish water, the only feature there is a lone tree near its center, long dead. Having emptied the backpack of everything and filled it with leaves and grass, she has left it with the tree as bait. The second location is dubbed; Base Camp, a small clearing where Raven has set up the tent and cooking gear, to give the impression that she is camping there. The third spot is called; the Shrubbery, an area in the jungle where the floor is covered in large leaved plants that's taller than a man. The fourth area is dubbed; Big Cave, lying far from the dead tree, but bordering the Marsh, is a huge system of caves sunk into the ground where the waters from the Marsh slowly flows into. The only access she has found is the large crack in the ground where the Marsh's water flow into. The fifth area is called the Vine Yard, an area of the forest where the vines hanging off the trees are particularly numerous and thick. The last area is Little Cave or Home Base, the cave Raven initially came upon. She spends the most of the day setting up Base Camp and leaving trails to the various sites. All the while Raven has the sneaking suspicion that she is being watched, when her mind is not preoccupied by other activities, she can almost imagine something watching her just outside her field of vision. At nightfall the presence has annoyed her enough for her to begin mediating on the matter.

"She is aware of our surveillance." One of the guardians notes. It may be coincidence, but at this moment Raven, who has been floating above ground with closed eyes for the last 20 minutes, chooses to open them and stares directly at the viewers.

"Who are you?" She asks, there is a short period of murmuring amongst the Guardians.

"She is guessing." The pony-tailed one concludes.

"Still, for one to notice our gaze is exceptional." Another adds.

"Is she aware of Mogo?" One speculates.

"Unlikely, his size often confuses."

"Does she pose a threat?" Another asks.

"Her objectives seem to be capture and detain only."

"Observation will continue."

Having come to no useful answer as to who is watching her, Raven turns in for the night, assuming the presence is John's way of keeping an eye on her. As she sleeps, she receives no warning that the shooting star on the night sky that might prove dangerous.

"Hmm Sinestro, this is unfortunate, but may prove informative." One of the Guardians mentions, having also seen the shooting star.

Raven awakens in the middle of the night, as something has entered her sphere of awareness. It is the same alarm system she made for herself when she lived alone in the tower, as an extra precaution, since most of the towers alarm systems only activated once someone set foot on the island, and Raven wanted to be up before that happened; now it has come in handy once more.

Anyone used to being out on nights where there is no light, will tell you that they can easily see a lit cigarette 100m away. Now imagine the light is the size of a grown man and bright yellow, Raven is immediately awake as she catches sigh of the yellow light moving through the trees . She does what she believes is best, she merges with the shadows to learn more about the light as it comes closer. As the light comes closer, she begins to pick up emotions from the light, primarily confidence, arrogance and annoyance. She remains quiet and motionless as a red skinned man with black hair and a pointy, almost cartoonish; mustache floats into the clearing beneath her. He is tall, with broad shoulders, wearing a primarily black suit with a dark green triangle around his neck and shoulders. But is most prominent feature is the glowing yellow aura that surrounds him, and the yellow ring on his right index finger.

"Ring, scan for life forms." He says to the ring he brings close to his face, as he comes to a halt in the clearing beneath her.

"Major sentient life form detected within 10 meters." A female voice replies from the ring. Apparently pleased the man lowers the ring again.

"Come out where I can see you." He says loudly while folding his arms over his chest, Raven isn't stupid so she remains quiet. "Hmm, very well; I am Sinestro, once the greatest of the Green Lanterns. Now I am their greatest foe, I am here in search of others like me, people who have been betrayed, used and abused by the Green Lanterns. In search of people who like me; who possess the power to instill great fear in others. In this search, I have been lead here, to you." Raven can sense he is sincere in his plea, but she has read about the Green Lanterns prior to her current predicament, they are supposedly a universal police force, and usually considered the good guys. Apparently her silence is beginning to vex him. "Answer me!" He says loudly as he points his ring at a tree, and blows it apart. Raven closes her eyes for a second before answering.

"Why. Should. I. Accept?" Her monotone voice sounds from three different locations, causing Sinestro to turn in each direction.

"I am making you a fair offer; imagine the power you can wield against those who crossed you and all others. All I require is for you to heed my command, and mine alone." Sinestro tries to reason with her, whilst his eyes are darting around to find her.

"You. Have. No. Idea. Who. You. Are. Dealing. With." Raven continues to speak each word from a different location, adding one or two from the tree tops and letting her powers rustle a few leaves. "Your. Power. Does. Not. Interest. Me."

Sinestro sighs before talking to his ring again. "Ring, track power source and identify wielder."

"Unknown power source, wielder unknown, location unknown." While he is distracted, Raven conjures up her next performance. Fast as lighting, a shadow bolts from the foot of the tree Raven is hiding in, before Sinestro notices it, it has sped past him and is heading into the forest. It's a test of how skittish he is, and she is not disappointed as her construct is obliterated by a yellow beam.

"So foolish." Sinestro sighs looking into the jungle.

"Said. The. Wasp. To. The. Spider." Ravens disembodied voice sounds again, while letting her powers sink through the ground.

"Blast! If you will not bow before Sinestro! Then you will taste his might!" He says while grinding his teeth. To his apparent discomfort, Ravens laughing voice is the reply, but the laugh is fake and Raven is letting her voice range from high pitched to a deep rumble.

"Your. Might. Is. Nothing. Compared. To. Mine." Her voice continues to bounce around Sinestro. For added effects, Raven lest her powers blow holes in the ground, starting a little outside the clearing before moving towards the man, imitating heavy footsteps with the rhythm, Sinestro fires a vast beam in the direction, hitting nothing but trees and other vegetation. When he sees the 'footsteps' coming closer, but not the thing making them, he takes to the air, hovering just in front of where Raven is hiding with his back facing her. It doesn't take an empath to see he is very angry, and maybe a little scared, he is definitely sweating.

"Damn it, you coward! Come out and face Sinestro's might!" He swears, still looking at the ground where the footsteps have stopped. Raven gathers her powers up before she makes her presence known.

"Here." She says as she leaps from her shadow, landing a solid blow on the back of his head, before she teleports away, to see Sinestro land hard on the ground from a new shadow. He gets up, looking more annoyed than hurt, she figures she only dazed him, the ring probably protected him.

"Very well, you have chosen death." He says quietly while looking into the trees.

"In blackest day, in brightest night.

Beware your fears made into light.

Let those who try to stop what's right.

Burn like my power… Sinestro's might!"

He recites while scanning the trees, Raven smirks inwardly, her own verse will prove how much he knows.

"The Gem was born of evil's fire.

The Gem shall be His portal.

He comes to claim.

He comes to sire.

The end of all things mortal!"

She chants loudly, while letting her voice sound from deep within the forest. Sinestro grinds his teeth again but doesn't move.

"Bah, a worthless children's rhyme!" Raven can see he may be a little more scared now. She slips down to the ground, while keeping an eye on Sinestro the whole time. When on the ground, she lets a few twigs break loudly somewhere behind her and she adds her own muffled curses to the effect. "AHA!" Sinestro says while blazing into the forest, passing Raven on the way. "Nowhere for you to run now!" He says while scanning the area he thought he heard the noise. Unheard by him, Raven has followed him by leaping from shadow to shadow. But he feels her; but only as she lands a kick in his back that sends him crashing head first into a dead tree.

"Neither is there for you." She says while he gets up, as he turns to face her with his face full of splinters, she sends a wave of black energy surging towards him, he blocks it by forming a shield in front of himself. As the dark tide clears, Raven is gone again, again he is caught off guard as the tree he is standing in front of explodes, peppering his back with more splinters. Calmly he turns to see Raven behind the remains of the trunk while brushing off her right knuckles. He doesn't move, but he sends out a blast in every direction around him, toppling two trees and sending Raven flying back. Sinestro follows slowly, in no apparent hurry.

"You can't win; I carry one of the most potent weapons in the universe." He says as he sees Raven lying dazed on the ground. Swiftly he walks over and kicks her in the ribs, getting a yelp out of her. "I came offering a gift of power, and you threw it away!" He kicks her again, hitting her stomach this time, knocking the wind out of her. As Raven curls up, Sinestro bends down and grabs her hair with his left hand and forces her head to face him, she shuts her eyes biting back the pain. "This, my dear, is entirely of your making." He says calmly as he draws back his right fist where a series of spikes form around his knuckles.

Ravens eyes suddenly open, and Sinestro's ring is suddenly glowing as black as Ravens eyes. Sinestro hardly registers the event as the ring on his finger continues to force his body to turn back and eventually drops him on the ground next to Raven, who ghosts out of his grip as he hits the ground.

It happens too fast for him to notice, but Raven is on her feet again and with a gesture she sends him rocketing away from her. Her outstretched hand is the last he sees as his head collides with a massive tree; the impact makes a hole in the trunk. "Right you are." She agrees quietly as she collects the dazed alien and forces him to fall asleep before separates him from his weapon while agreeing she had been lucky to disrupt it enough to weaken his shield.

"Impressive." One the guardians mention, while the others nod slowly.

"Indeed, but the verse is of concern." Another adds.

"Possibly it is only a ruse." The pony-tailed one counters.

"Perhaps, but if any connection between her and the originator can be made, she is worth our continued observance."

Sinestro wakes up at dawn, the first thing he notices is his aching head and a strange object in his mouth.

"So you awaken." A monotone voice rings in his head and he tries to open his eyes, recognizing it from last night.

"Mrrphm!" He mumbles as he regains is sight. Raven is standing in front of him, staring at him with her violet eyes. As he tries to move, he realizes his arms are being kept stretched out by several vines wrapped around them, the same is the case with his legs but they are tired together. The object in his mouth proves to be another thick vine that has been tied around his head. Also he notes is that his shirt is missing. He has become the center piece of the Vine Yard. But all of his is blown from his mind as Raven flips his ring in one hand; he fixes her with a hard stare.

"So you are not damaged." Raven notes. "Good, maybe you can give me a few tips regarding some green friends I am expecting in a few days?" He continues to stare at her angrily. "No?" Raven puts on a disappointed look. "Well maybe you will change your mind after a while." She says before teleporting away, leaving the red skinned man hanging.

She returns half an hour later, finding the still fuming Sinestro still hanging in the vines. "Wanna talk?" He continues to fume and Raven leaves again. She returns to him every 30 minutes for three hours before the lack of water and the stifling heat has begun to make his vision blurry and increases his already considerable headache. After Raven appears with a flask of water, he finally agrees. Raven unties the gag and lets him have a little water.

"Ready to talk?" She asks, as she floats before him.

"A little more please." He replies quietly still sounding dehydrated. Raven lets him have little more water, but he keeps it in his mouth.

"Better?" She asks. Sinestro suddenly has a sudden angry spark in his eye and spits Raven in the face.

"Go to hell!" He sneers. Raven in apparent shock, slowly raises her hand to wipe away the spit slowly running down her face. As she watches her hand comes away wet, she also gets a dangerous glint in her eyes if Sinestro was paying attention he would have noticed the red glow. Lightning fast Ravens other hand shoots out and seizes one half of Sinestro's mustache, he makes a sudden yelp as Raven pulls on it.

"You really ought to know when you have lost!" Raven says sternly before giving the mustache a vicious yank getting a pained yelp out of him as parts of it comes off, she leaves the cursing Sinestro to look at the dropped water flask empty itself at his feet.

Raven returns shortly afterwards with a black bubble behind her and evil smirk on her face. "I tried to do this the nice way, but you wanted to do it this way. I have a friend who could tell you all sorts of interesting and pointless things about what I have behind me, but all you need to know, is that they react to treats by biting." At this the ball floats over her head and impacts on Sinestro's chest, spilling the contests all over him. At first he thinks she has thrown warm water on him, but then the stinging and biting begins, first a minor annoyance then it really begins to hurt. Raven watches impassively as the ants she found do their thing, namely biting any exposed pieces of skin they can get to. Sinestro squirms and struggles to get free, but the bindings are too tight. The only sounds he makes is grunting and spitting trying to keep the insects out of his mouth. After five minutes, she brushes off the majority of the ants, revealing the already puffy skin of Sinestro underneath. Raven floats down to the ground to collect her flask, brushing off any ants on it before addressing her captive again. "Maybe I will return later to see if your disposition has improved." She says before disappearing again to get cleaned up.

Sitting at the stream of fresh water, Raven notes that it is a lot warmer today, and the jungle humidity is making her wish she was in the toga she wore on Themyscira. At the thought of the island Raven suddenly has an odd sensation as all the memories of the place comes back to her, the heat, the beaches, the training and her new friends. Sighting again; _"Once again, I am in a place no one would think I'd be a few years ago and doing things no one would have thought I would do. How things change."_ She notes dryly. Staring at the clear sky, while lying on her back she recalls all the good things she has experienced this last month, and quickly moves over the bad ones. Finishing her review, she sits up, finding her leotard to be practically sticking to her back as if glued.

"Well this is getting uncomfortable." She says out loud as she moves around a little. While she changed her outfit at the shoulders because of the sunburns and the increased muscles, right now her leotard feels like it has shrunk in the wash. She sighs again, "Guess it is time to change the wardrobe again." Putting her hands on her midsection she begins to chant slowly and the fabric slowly comes away. Leaving something that can best be described as a pair of hotpants and a top that leaves most of her stomach and lower back exposed. Also she has her long gloves retract themselves to stop just below her elbows,. Looking down at herself to inspect her work, she talks aloud again. "And there you have it folks, Raven of the Teen Titan's without her cloak and in half of what she hides under it. Hope you are enjoying it, freak." She says angrily while shaking a fist at the sky thought she isn't really angry. In their fortress, the Guardians mumble amongst themselves before continuing their watch. "And the only one to notice it up close is a red skin with delusions' grandeur and a sadistic streak a mile wide. If only it had been someone else…" She sighs, thinking of the people she would prefer as company on a strange deserted planet, Batman, Richard and Diana is currently topping the list.

Talking to herself is a habit she has picked up while living alone, at first it started with nothing but a morning greeting to herself, but it developed to its current state when something annoys her, like when reality did not agree with the manuals Cyborg left her. When she noticed she had begun doing it, she tried stopping but there were slipups and they made it oddly tolerable living with no one else around. But it had more than once caused Raven to realize just how lonely she really felt, the first time was the worst, since it came after a particularly bad week filled with injuries, abuse from the public and failed attempts in the Tower. It was all triggered by something as insignificant as Raven burning her dinner, something inside of her just snapped and she had screamed long and loud at the wasted meal that ended up splattered over the far wall. When the noise died down and that nothing had reacted to her scream, Raven had plopped down on the couch and had a complete breakdown after staring out the windows for five seconds. She was tired, hungry and so very lonely, and at that moment she felt no one gave a damn about her. The morning after Raven had cursed Bravery wildly for abandoning her when Wisdom suggested calling some of the others.

"Speaking of which…" She says before teleporting to the Vine Yard.

In the time that has passed, all of the insect bites have made much of Sinestro's skin swell, combined with his pigmentation makes him look like a boiled lobster colored balloon. Raven has a slight flicker of worry that she may have gone too far, but she quickly hushes that part. Guessing he is roasting in the heat along with being without food for a good while now, Raven decides to try the carrot approach again and leaves to find some fruit. Returning some 20 minutes later with a few fruits she has found to be edible. Sinestro stirs as she drops them all on the ground in front of him. "Ok Sinestro, here's the lay down; you have information I want, I am perfectly capable of retrieving it without your willing assistance, but since we are on a deserted planet, I can do pretty much whatever I want with you. But I would prefer not having to resort to any more unpleasantries, unless you force me to. So help me willingly and I will treat you well, maybe even cure some of those insect bites, or you can choose not to. So what do you say?"

Sinestro looks at her, with one eye almost swollen shut and with grinding teeth, Raven sighs before he speaks. "I know your kind, you have rules, you have nothing to threaten me with!" He sneers.

"So you believe." She picks up the knife at her leg, noticing Sinestro's one eye widening a bit. "But still, I need you alive, for the time being." She says while splitting one of the fruits in four pieces, which she brings to Sinestro. "Spit at me again Sinestro, and the only thing I will feed you from then on, will be your fingers." She warns sternly before offering him the fruit. He sneers at her before he begins eating, Raven just smirks as a reply. He gets two fruits before Raven leaves again, having to eat as well and consider how to best get the information she needs.


	38. Under Observation

"She is capable of acting on her treat." The pony-tailed Guardian says quietly.

"Indeed, brothers and sisters, I believe we have let this run for as long as it can." Another replies.

"Agreed, an invasion of Sinestro's mind will prove most troublesome for us." A third, a female, adds.

"Shall we send John Steward to remove her?" One asks, offering a suggestion.

"We have yet to decide on John Stewards transgression." Another female adds.

"Apparently he intends to bring Green Lanterns Kilowog, Kyle Rayner and Katma Tui in his search." One of the others adds.

"Brothers and sisters, I propose we bring her here for further examination. If she proves to be otherwise friendly, we can control what she will know. Let Green Lantern John Steward and the others then go to her, to receive his punishment for his transgression." The others look around themselves at the pony-tailed ones suggestion.

"While we are aware of your unhealthy interest in other things than upholding the order we all swore to uphold. Your proposal does hold merit. But you, brother, will be the one examining her." One of the females says after the others transmit their agreement.

The Guardians all close their eyes and remain silent as the orb simmers out of existence and is replaced by Raven sitting cross-legged in midair with her hands to her face and with her mouth open, indicating she was eating a fruit. Raven freezes all movement as she takes in the new surroundings; from a steaming jungle to a cold metal meeting room is a change, especially when instantaneous and unexpected. To Ravens normal sight, she is inside a circular room, like an auditorium, with three rows of seats in front of her, each occupied by a diminutive blue alien without pupils in their green eyes. To Raven they all looks the same, the females are bald and ageless, while the males are aged with bald spots and short white hair, except one who has a full head of hair and a pony-tail. They are all dressed the same in red coats underneath a white tabard with a single green logo on their chests, that Raven recognizes as the same one John Steward wears on his. To her emphatic senses however, the group of 20 dwarves is emitting only one emotion, an emotion that seems to have no end to; willpower. Raven closes her open mouth while letting her leotard re-grow into its old appearance, covering her shoulders and midsection again.

"Welcome, we are the Guardians of the Universe. You are on Oa, home of the Green Lantern Corp. As you have sensed, we have been watching you since your arrival on Green Lantern Mogo. We have observed your battle with Sinestro and we know of your plans to incapacitate the team Green Lantern John Steward is assembling. But we will know more of who and what you are and your true intentions." The one with the pony-tail says while floating onto the floor in front of her, Raven is getting tired of the seemingly endless line of people who take in interest in her.

"And I suppose I don't have any say in the matter." She says flatly.

"No." The pony-tail says, before his eyes glow, it is all the warning Raven has to throw up every mental shield she has to keep the overpowering mind of the alien out of hers. The fight drops her on the floor, apparently not seeing the real world any more.

"She fights you." One of the females notes.

"Fiercely. I must tread carefully." The pony-tail says without showing any stain of the battle he is fighting.

Inside Raven's mindscape, her emotions are fighting a losing battle against a large green cloud that is moving slowly towards Azerath. The attacks from the emotions have no effect on the cloud, both their punches and streams of black energy pass right through it. As the cloud draws closer, all of the emotions break off their attacks and heads back to the city. As they land in front of the closed city gates, they all turn to face the coming cloud that has not picked up pace. Nodding once, they all merge to form the single white dressed Raven. She takes a single look at the cloud before addressing it from the edge of the cliff.

"Turn back now, and we can talk." She says calmly, she knows she can't stop it, but she knows she can repay the intrusion by travelling down through the link it is using.

"We must know for sure." The cloud responds without halting. Raven nods at it once, before throwing her arms wide and lets her white soul-self make itself manifest as a gigantic white bird that first rises above her before flying towards and envelops the cloud in it wings. The effect is immediate.

"Brother?" One of the male Guardians ask, as the pony-tailed one grunts and takes on a slightly pained expression on his face, but otherwise ignores the speaker.

Ravens mind is flooded with images spanning billions of years, she witnesses galaxies being born and their decline into nothing. She sees the universe as it once was; chaotic and wild, before sentience and civilization had reached most of it. She sees images of a swarm of red armored robots with blue faces, and feels something akin to shame. She sees the birth of the Green Lanterns and the half finished Central Power Battery during its construction. After this Ravens mind goes black as she passes out on the floor, with the last image of the pony-tailed one and a name Ganthet.

Ganthet, as the pony-tailed Guardian is known by most of the Corps, learns all he needs to know. To him Raven's life is less than a blink of an eye, but it surprises him a little that she has endured such a life. Abused since she was a child to control her vast powers, doomed by all, including herself to be the portal of the ancient evil known as Trigon, her father. But she defeated the fiend with the help of her friends. Years later, weeks ago, she attempts to reconcile with the people who originally turned away her plea for aid, receiving the same welcome as she did back then, assault. Weeks pass with trials being held and passed, pain being endured and friends made. With it all leading to this point, John Steward's test, a game of hide and seek, turned to seek and capture because of a bad landing. Ganthet quickly informs his fellow Guardians of what he has learned and that Raven has caught a glimpse of his mind.

"Her mind will be clouded by anger when she wakes." One of the females notes after Ganthet finishes.

"Agreed. But as suspected, she is the child of the demon Trigon." Another continues.

"Yet she resists him at every turn." One of the males adds.

"We agree, she means no permanent injuries to our officers. We will allow her hunt." One surmises the decision.

"With the display she presented in her mind, we agree she is potentially capable of wielding any ring that might be offered her?" A female adds.

"Agreed, we will need warning if she receives one not of our creation." A male finishes, echoing the conclusion of the others that Raven's powers would allow her to channel a single emotion and as such artificially raise the signals that attracts a host-less powering. The danger they see in this is that she will become stuck with that single emotion; the end result could be horrendously powerful and dangerous.

"Are you well brother?" A female Guardian next to the now seated Ganthet asks.

"I am unharmed sister; I merely wonder what she saw within my own mind." He replies.

"You wish to apologies." One of the others states and Ganthet nods once, in his experience, humans respond better to them when treated decently. Unfortunately he is alone amongst his fellows with this perception.

"If we one day should need her aid, it would be best if she does not harbor any ill feeling towards us." Ganthet explains. "I will go with her to Mogo, should things go badly you will continue without me." The others nod, and Ganthet along with Raven disappears from the room.

_Hall of Justice, Metropolis:_

"Cyborg! Beastboy! It's been ages!" Speedy says happily as he steps into the workshop, after finally obtaining permission to go see his old friends, it had taken almost an entire night to convince Ollie to let him go. Both men in question turn their heads towards the door, both looking like big question marks before their eyes go wide. They drop what they are carrying before rushing over to greet their old friend.

"Speedy, my man! How have you been?" Cyborg says while shaking hands with him, Beastboy is jumping up and down beside him, eager for his turn.

"Currently I am great, hey Beastboy." He turns to shake hands with the green man, but receives a hug.

"Boy you've grown." Garfield notices Roy's arms; that have grown considerably from the gangly boy he once was.

"Bow and arrow does that Gar, and I can say the same about you." He smirks back.

"So what is the occasion for the visit?" Cyborg asks, knowing Speedy didn't just walk in on them.

"Well, I bumped into Raven on the League satellite yesterday. Exchanged a few words with her before she was carted off with Green Lantern. After that I asked my generous mentor how long Raven has been about, he told me a fairytale and mentioned you two were holed up in here. So here I am to catch up with you."

"Dude, it's taken you days to get here?" Beastboy asks.

"Well, I had to get permission to leave Green Arrow's side and that's not an easy thing to do these days." Roy says, with a sly grin.

"What's this? Is Roy Harper finally following orders?" Nightwing says as he appears out of the other corridor. "Good to see you again." He says while slapping the man on the back, Roy cringes internally as he realizes Nightwing doesn't know.

"Good to see you too Nightwing, say now that all us guys are here, what do you say we catch up over a pizza?" Roy's suggestion is readily accepted by all, he is even going to pay for it all; he wants them to be happy before he tells them.

_Mogo:_

Raven wakes up alone, in a clearing of the forest, she is uncomfortably warm, her head hurts and she remembers a small blue man violating the sanctity of her mind. As several people have come to find out over the last couple of weeks, this is a very good way to make Raven very angry. And inside Ravens head, her other emotions are holding down the swelling red-cloaked emotion. They manage to keep it in check by a promise that it will have a chance to be vented. And Raven knows where to get it. Teleporting back to Sinestro, she sees him smirking in his binds.

"Have you finally found a way to make me talk?" He asks with a smirk, confident in his own abilities to resist her. Raven doesn't reply, she just lets her leotard grow back into the 'jungle pattern' she wore before the Guardians picked her up, and lets the vines holding Sinestro relax, dropping the man on the ground. Before he gets up, Raven has transported them both to flat rocky surface of a large hill Raven spotted during her initial scouting. Sinestro is dropped on the ground, while Raven walks away before facing him. "This isn't going to make me talk." Sinestro says while getting up and wiping the dirt off himself.

"Who says I am interested in hearing you talk?" Sinestro raises an eyebrow at her; he is even more surprised when she tosses his ring to him.

"Girl you have just dug your own grave." He says as he puts it on, with a smirk coming across his face as his shirt reforms. Raven doesn't give any indication of her heeding him, preoccupied with taking off her boots.

"I am only giving that to you, because you will need it to survive." She replies flatly while changing into her demon from.

"You are serious, aren't you?" He asks, getting ready to defend himself. Raven smirks as the ground before her explodes, lifting a large rock out of the ground that is hurled towards Sinestro who gets a shield up in time to see it shatter.

"You'd better believe it." Ravens voice comes from behind him, followed by a blow to his head.

Ganthet watches the fight from afar with a passive look on his face. Sinestro has sworn vengeance against him, his corps and his kin; in turn Sinestro is ranked highly on the Guardians list of wanted criminals, so whatever happens to him is of little consequence.

"_Are you certain Guardian?"_ A deep voice sounds within Ganthets head.

"_It is best to let her calm down before I approach her again Green Lantern Mogo." _He replies.

"_But will the fallen one survive it?"_ Mogo asks.

"_I am certain he will, it is her belief that the willingness to take a life is what separates herself and the likes of Sinestro. She is just taking out her anger. But should he fall…it matters little."_

"_Does the Guardian's condone of her plans?" _Mogo continues.

"_We see it fitting that we let it play out as she wishes, the damage she does will outweigh the punishment the Lanterns coming here would otherwise receive."_

"_You intend to aid her?"_

"_Indirectly I will, with council and advise, it is a way to amend for entering her mind which is the current source of her anger."_ Ganthet explains, in the distance a yellow and black explosion is seen before a dull boom is heard.

"_I understand, I merely wish of express my concern for personal safety in this matter."_ Ganthet nods slightly in understanding; it is unusual for the Lantern to have it's body turned into a battlefield, while Mogo is massive in size, it still does not like being harmed, even if the current battle is doing less than superficial damage to its surface.

"_You have attempted contact?"_ Ganthet speculates.

"_It was my belief that Green Lantern of sector 2814 wished for me to examine her. But my attempts at having a glimpse of her mind have been met with failure, preventing me from performing my usual functions."_

"_Understandable, Green Lantern Mogo, her mind is heavily fortified due to necessity. It took myself some effort before retrieving the knowledge I needed and she retaliated and raided my own mind as well." _In the distance a yellow and black beam shoots into the sky to continue their duel there.

"_Hmm an event worth remembering."_ Mogo adds with a hint of amusement, in the distance black clouds seem to be forming.

"_Indeed. You have a sense for dramatics." _Ganthet notes, while eyeing the rapidly forming clouds.

"_She seems to prefer the night."_ Mogo sends back.

The two remain quiet as the black clouds surge towards the combatants, born on a high wind. To those with normal sight, the only indication of the fight still continuing is the images that flash in the clouds; some are back lighted by the white flashes of lightning and some by a yellow flash of Sinestro's ring. The fight continues for several minutes in the clouds, before a gigantic shadowy bird rises out of the clouds, letting out a shrill cry as it descends into the clouds and through them, with a small yellow speck in its midst. It continues its plummeting towards the ground at ever greater speed; a dull boom is heard as it crashes into the jungle.

"_It is over."_ Mogo notes dryly, Ganthet nods.

Raven stands panting over Sinestro's still form, feeling a mix of exhaustion, hunger and pride. Sinestro is still breathing, but slowly and irregularly, but then again with his injuries, he would. His right arm is broken in two places, one right above the wrist and one right below the elbow. The left has a fracture between the shoulder and elbow. His face is even more swollen now, with a left black eye, swollen lip and a few missing teeth. The last attack left Sinestro with the majority of his ribs broken and a piece of wood piercing his right shoulder. Add to this the numerous claw marks that are present on his body. If he had been found on Earth people would have said he had gotten off lightly from fighting a bear. Raven has her own injuries, mostly burn wounds, but also a few piercing, but currently the adrenalin pumping through her system is leaving them beneath her notice. With Sinestro in the center of the hole they are both standing in a newly created clearing with uneven ground and surrounded by fallen trees.

Without warning, heavy rain begins to fall, soaking the two opponents, Raven just lifts her face to it welcoming the cooling shower. After a minute she forms a shield over herself, the worry of catching a cold is not on her mind. As J'onn noted when Raven was being held on the space station, when she is in her demon form, her body temperature increases, but the rain will still annoy her eventually.

"You may as well show yourself Ganthet, I can feel you a mile away." She says.

"Very impressive Raven." Ganthet replies as he appears over her, she just grunts as a reply. "You are still angry."

"Very, but you are not aggressive which leads me to believe you want something other than mind-raping me again." She replies flatly, while levitating off the ground to have Ganthet at eye to eye, the lower pair of hers that is. She notes Ganthet is surrounded by an invisible bubble that keeps the rain away from him as well.

"A crude description, but true when one considers a mind a sanctum. But you also took from me." He adds.

"Guess we are even then." She says while crossing her arms. "What do you want?"

"Merely to know what you have seen within me, in return I will offer you the information you sought to coax out of Sinestro. We Guardians are after all the creators of the rings."

"Yes, I saw you how you build the Central Power Battery. So you know what I intend to use that information for?"

"Green Lantern Mogo has kept us informed, as well as our observations of how you plan to divide a numerically superior enemy before taking them down."

"Or attempting to at least, so you are not here to stop me?" She asks.

"We find it as a fitting punishment for John Steward for his neglect to keep us informed and his commandeering of Corp resources. As you may understand, the Corp is a military institution and this way John Steward will avoid a court marshal." Raven nods at him before answering.

"What I saw in your head makes little sense to me. Like a movie played at fast forward, I see galaxies come into existence before they grow, then they die again, I see darkness mixed with turbulence, I hear languages I can't understand. But I understand that you built the Green Lantern Corps as a replacement to an army of robots, and that was I don't know how many thousands of years ago." She explains, Ganthet gives a slight nod.

"If you will allow it, can I see what you saw?" Raven remains silent for a moment, before nodding. Ganthet closes his eyes slowly, keeping them closed for a few seconds before opening them again, pleased that Raven did not see or remember anything deemed too dangerous. "I took the liberty of making some of the memories a little clearer, but you will have to be without the language you heard. It's the fewest outside the Guardians that can understand or speak the first language of the universe for long without their minds collapsing. But I will tell you that the discussion was whenever we Guardians should create a new Corp after the Manhunters had failed us, and which emotion we should base it on."

"I see. So what will you tell me about the 'rescue team'?"

"The team consists of four members; Green Lanterns of sector 2814, John Steward and Lantern-in-Training Kyle Rayner. Accompanying them will be the senior Lantern trainers, Kilowog and Katma Tui. None of them know of your landing, but you suspect as much." She nods at this. "The rings all Green Lanterns wear are capable of creating solid light constructs based upon the wear's willpower and imagination."

"And Sinestro is the same?" She asks as Ganthet has Sinestro's ring slip off his finger and float to his hand.

"In effect it is, but his is powered by the fear he inspires in others. As you displayed, being unafraid of him makes him weaker. But we are aware you do not know what evil he is capable of or of his reputation." He cups his hands over the yellow ring for a second before revealing it again, having turned it into a green ring. "I will be honest with you Raven, when we examined you; we saw in you the capability to wield more than one ring, which is a rare thing, even if technically artificial. There are more Lantern Corps than the Green, assembled by others than we Guardians and even that of Sinestro, but their goals differ from ours and they are not all benevolent to the universe as a whole." Raven quirks an eyebrow at the small alien, mostly at the first part.

"You're joking; I spend much of my time in an attempt to suppress my emotions, why should I be able to wield one of your rings?" She asks, to her worry Ganthet smirks slightly.

"We Guardians are not known to have a sense of humor. Kyle Rayner is a newspaper artist, and said something similar when he was chosen. The day may never come, but we Guardians have no direct influence as to who the rings choose, all we know is that they have been found worthy by the ring. The reason why you may be able to wield them all is because of your balance, unique composition and powers. But you should not underestimate the emotions you suppress, they may be more powerful than you can imagine." He holds the ring into the air, where it takes off and hovers in the air for a few seconds.

"Scanning residents of sector 2814…target acquired." A slightly computerized female voice sounds from the ring before is heads directly for Raven and begins circling her like a glowing insect. "Raven of Earth, you have the power to overcome great fear." Is says before landing in her hand.

"Think of this as a test, try it." Gathet says. Raven look at the ring for a few seconds before slipping in over her right middle finger.

"Welcome to the Green Lantern Corp." The ring says as Raven's clothing changes. Asides from her face, a smooth black fabric now covers her body along with a cloak similar to her own, only green. On the back of the cloak and on her chest glows the symbol Gathet is also wearing, that of a green lantern, only that Raven's seems to be a green fire. Pulling back the hood, Raven notices a mask has attached itself to her face, poking it reveals it to be the same design as the one Robin used to wear only that the linings are green instead of black.

"Wow…" Ganthet smirks a little at her exclamation.

"To make it work, all you have to do is to focus on a task. Which is also the weakness of the ring, if you cannot focus, then you cannot make it work. Try focusing on that log." He suggests at a large tree that fell with Sinestro.

Raven hesitantly points the ring at the tree and focuses, letting her imagination work, a small green version of Trigon springs into life next to the log before it bends down and lifts the log above its head and breaks it in half over its knee. "Cool."

"Usually you would be recalled to Oa for further training in the use of the ring. But as this is a test version it only has a very limited supply of energy." As he speaks the ring on Raven's finger crumbles to dust and her clothes return to normal.

"You could have programmed it to seek me out specifically." Raven notes.

"I could, yes, but I did not. All rings follow a main directive issued from Oa that governs their programming; the ring I made followed those same directives, it chose you because you were worthy." Raven seems to think about it for a moment. "If you must know, the hope you feel also help steel your will. As you may remember through all your struggles with your father."

Raven nods at this but she decides to ignore the flattery she can't tell if it is genuine or merely a form of manipulation, instead she focuses on the information she needed. "So, all I have to do when the others come is to break their focus?"

"It may sound simple, but remember young one, Lanterns are chosen because of their great focus and willpower so it will not be an easy task." Ganthet explains. "Hmm, it seems the rescue team has left Oa, they will be here within a matter of hours. I will remain here to see how it all plays out, good luck." He says before disappearing, leaving Raven and the battered Sinestro behind.

"So John you still haven't told me why you chose to maroon her on Mogo for a week." Kyle asks as the four Lanterns zoom through space.

"I think she is dangerous, and Mogo will be able to tell me what her deal is." John replies. "The hide and seek is just for kicks." He adds. "Besides nothing teaches like a field trip in a jungle."

"You are a strange one John." Katma adds.

"Yeah poozer, you could just have brought her to Oa." Kilowog says.

"Like the Guardians would want a potentially dangerous civilian mixing with the Corp." John replies with a smirk.

"They are going to pretty steamed anyways if they find out about this." Kyle continues.

"Let me worry about that." John says, as Mogo comes into view. The four fly to the position where John last saw Raven, now entering the final moments of the evening.

"_Welcome Green Lanterns, I hope your hunt goes well." _Mogo greets.

"Thanks Mogo, but I doubt we will need much luck to find one kid." John says out loud. "Ok, spread out and look for tracks." He orders the others as they touch down near the tree Raven crashed into. Four cone shaped beams spring out from their rings as they begin to scan the ground.

"Hmm not much to see, it's been raining recently." Kilowog notes.

"I got something." Kyle calls as he scans the roots, the others move closer to see.

"Tell it to indentify Kyle." Katma instructs her pupil.

"Ring, scan substance." Kyle says while pointing at the stick that impaled Raven's leg, after a few days here it has turned black with her blood.

"Scanning, matter identified as 50 % human DNA matter known as blood and 50 % matter unknown." It replies, the others turn to John.

"John did you put her down, or did you drop her." Katma asks while putting her hand on her hips in a disapproving manner.

"I…Erm…" John stammers.

"Up there poozers." Kilowog says while pointing his rings light at the tree where Raven collided with it; Kilowog has his ring highlight outline of the impression she left in it.

"I was flying low while I dropped her, but she can fly." John explains quickly, getting a sigh out of his old trainer.

"Is this hers?" Kyle says while holding up a piece of muddied and torn cloth that might have been blue once.

"Yeah, it's hers." John sighs while eying the broach attached to it. "Hold onto that."

"I've got tracks." Katma calls from behind them. Her ring is revealing a series of circular holes in the forest floor now filled with water.

"Ok let's follow them." Kyle says before flying off, with the three others following, John forming the rear.

"_Why didn't you tell me she was injured?" _He sends to Mogo.

"_While she was injured, she managed to overcome it; your game is still on."_ Come's the reply.

"Hmm tracks stop here." Kyle notes while he lands in front of the rock formation after a few minutes of flight.

"Ring, scan for composite materials." John orders his ring while lighting up the rocks.

"Scanning complete, composite materials located 20 meters a head and 10 meters up." The ring replies.

"Got a cave." Kilowog say's, since he took to the air while the others stayed on the ground. The others fly up to him and spot it. Katma is the first to enter.

"She's been here, but she has left, leaving some winter clothing behind." Katma says as she comes back out carrying a pair of thin insulated pants and a jacket.

"Guy's, there are more tracks visible from up here." Kyle calls from the edge; the others move over to see the trail the initially followed and six others leading off in different directions.

"What do you think?" Katma asks.

"Either the game is still on, or she frequented different spots. We need to split up." John replies.

"Looks like a setup, if you ask me." Kilowog ventures, noticing none of the trails seem to head in the same direction.

"It's one kid lost in the jungle, she probably just couldn't tell which way she was going." John replies in an annoyed tone. He quickly orders them all down different paths before any more objections can be made. Sending Kyle on the path to the Swamp, Kilowog down the tail to Base Camp, Katma will end up in the Vineyard and himself down the path to the Shrubbery.

Raven watches them split up from the shadows of the jungle before teleporting to the Vineyard, knowing Katma will reach it first.

_Hall of Justice, Metropolis:_

"So what do ya think Rae is doing?" Beastboy asks the three others, they had all returned to the workshop after spending the last couple of days remembering the Titan days. Roy had come clean with them after the initial pizza; the reaction was a mix between shock and disappointment. Unknown to Richard, he had echoed Ravens reaction of calmly saying he was disappointed in Roy, but that he was glad that he was clean again.

"Probably roasting marshmallows with GL." Cyborg adds from the middle seat of the T-ship, Nightwing doesn't know why, but he is suddenly feeling slightly envious of the Leaguer if he is doing that.

"After she proves her worth to him, he might." Roy replies, having a better knowledge of Green Lantern than the others. "He is a swell guy once you get past his stony exterior."

"Well we don't know where he took her, could be one of those place where campfires are not allowed." Richard adds.

"With the baggage you sent her off with? Doubt it." Roy replies. "So are those rumors I've heard about true?"

"Which rumors?" Cyborg asks as he is tightening a screw.

"That Raven slapped Wonder Woman around." Cyborg and Nightwing smirks at this.

"You should have been there Roy." Beastboy answers. "Wonder Woman tried using her magic lasso thingie on Raven, who seemed to have a sort of allergic reaction to it. That's when she busted free and punched her through a few walls and into your training area."

"Didn't think Raven's telekinesis was that strong?" Roy asks while rubbing his chin.

"Well Roy you should have been in Gotham a few week ago. Before she slapped Wonder Woman around, using her bare hands by the way…"

"What!?" Roy asks in disbelief, he had thought Raven had used her better known powers to get around Wonder Woman.

"… she did lift an old battleship using that." Cyborg continues thought Roy's outburst.

"I thought she wasn't the physical type?" Roy asks.

"She's changed a lot Roy, three years alone in Jump City made her compensate for our absence. But she changed even more during the fight with the dragon; he cast a spell on her that changed her into an image of her father. She went away after the fight to find a way to reverse the effect and to think her life over." Nightwing answers.

"Now I worry if GL hasn't managed to piss her off." Roy says, not knowing how right he is.


	39. Raven's Might!

Raven waits silently in the shadows as she sees Katma entering the area where the trail stops. Katma stops as expected in the center, right next to the spot where the trail ends before going down on one knee she examines the remains of the tracks and contacts the others.

"It a dead end here, the tracks just stop in the middle of nowhere, I'll do a scan of the area then head back." She says before beginning scanning the forest floor. Raven lets her powers become invisible and sends them through the forest, making Katma shudder while she stands up. "Uhh…creepy place, what were you doing here girl?" A groan sounds from the nearby bushes, which immediately attracts attention, Raven smirks; maybe Sinestro was going to prove useful after all.

"Help…me..." He groans from the bushes. Katma moves over slowly, letting her ring shine some light on the area before she lifts the leaves covering him. Getting an audible gasp out of her, as she sees him and his condition.

As Raven watches, Katma raises her ring to her mouth, to call in her find. Reacting quickly, Raven focuses on Katma's mind, making the woman feel waves of dizziness overcomes her as her vision blurs as a keening racket fills her ears. As she stands up with hand on her head, Raven sets up the second part of her ambush. Many vines loosen themselves from the trees and races towards the unsuspecting woman, grabbing hold of her arms and legs.

"What the..?" Katma asks confused as she suddenly finds herself suspended in the air.

"No…" Sinestro whimpers beneath her, as they both see a black shadow racing towards them both at an amazing speed; its darkness is the last they see.

Taking Katma's ring with her, Raven leaves the two unconscious ring wielders I the Vineyard, moving to the next one, Kyle in the Swamp.

"Hellooo…Anyone here?" Kyle calls loudly while flying above the swamp waters, in the light of dusk the place is eerily quiet, and Kyle's artistic imagination is already making up all sorts of monsters that could hide in the still waters. "Wonder if she has been fishing here? Hey what's that?" Kyle says as he catches sight of a dark lump near a tree in the center of the swamp, moving closer he sees it is a large backpack. "John I think I found her backpack in a swamp." He says into his ring.

"_Search the area. Katma came to a dead end and should be heading back. Kilowog found her campsite and a few traps for small animals, there was a trail leading from the camp deeper into the forest."_ John replies.

"How about you?" Kyle asks.

"_Nothing but tall plants here; if she is hiding in them I can't see her much less follow the trail that led me here. I will head down another trail shortly, John out."_

With the lack of shadows to merge with, Raven has had to resort to other ways of hiding, currently by having most of her body submerged in the slimy water, while hiding most of her head in a clump of grass leaning over the water, leaning her head back a bit ensures she has a clear view of the tree without having to move to breathe, since her nose is above water while using her powers to keep her body down.

"Wonder why she left this out here?" Kyle asks while moving closer to the apparently stuffed backpack. "HELLOOO?" He yells as he touches down next to it, his own echo is the only reply. Both Raven and Kyle hears the sudden _plop_ on the other side of the island Raven is observing, she freezes as Kyle spins around to face the sound.

Raven sees an opening and takes a deep breath before submerging, to not disturb the surface water; she grabs hold of the slimy swamp bottom to go in the direction she wants.

"Hey there little guy." Kyle says as a small crocodile-like amphibian at the size of a hand regards him from the water, Kyle notes it has six legs. "You wouldn't happen to have seen a young woman in distress around here?" He asks, for some reason the small reptile begins croaking like a frog. "Aww, you're a cute one." Kyle says as he goes down on one knee to have a closer look at the small creature, behind him in the water Raven resurfaces with her back to the island. "Say you wouldn't happen to have a mother do you? Well if you do, I do hope she hasn't eaten the girl I'm looking for, according to my buddy she would be in pickle out here."

Raven rolls her eyes; apparently Kyle has her confused with some high school cheerleader type that will run screaming at the sight of a cow. Pushing the distracting thought aside she focuses.

Kyle is completely distracted by the small reptile that has picked up the rate of its croaking; also a small bubble appears between its left back and middle leg. "Aww, a farting croc baby." Kyle says, with a smirk, wondering if the Corp allows pets as he is suddenly struck by a dizzy spell. "Phew, you sure do make some gas boy." He says while standing up and clutching his nose with his right hand and waving the air away with the left. The small reptile makes one final loud croak before disappearing quickly under the water surface, seeing the black snakes creeping closer to the unaware Kyle. "Huh, wonder what got into him?" The snakes race forwards as Kyle's dizziness increases. "What the..?!" Is all he manages as his arms legs and neck are suddenly constricted by the black serpents and yanked backwards into the water. The last thing he sees before he is pulled under is a pair of purple eyes; before everything goes black he wishes someone would bring him an aspirin.

Emerging out of the water with the unconscious Kyle, the first thing Raven notes, is that she is covered in black mud, as is Kyle.

"I am going to need a shower when this is over." She notes while looking down herself.

As she bends down to relieve Kyle of his ring, the small reptile emerges again, with its mother in tow. Raven just stares at it, she agrees that the baby could be considered cute, for a six legged crocodile, its mother is definitely not, mainly because it is the size of the two T-car's parked bumper to bumper. The monstrous reptile opens its mouth and lets loose a loud hissing sound along with what can be described as a burp. At the sight of the hungry crocodile, Raven only thinks of one thing, being unable to face Beastboy again if she runs away from this. Letting her soul-self tower above herself and letting her eyes glow red, Raven lets loose her own hiss in response. The small reptile immediately takes cover behind its mother, "_It is probably just animal instinct's"_, Raven surmises as the pair slowly sinks under the water and swims away. She has read that many animals make themselves appear bigger than they are to scare off predators; she guesses this is what happened here. Turning to Kyle again, she teleports herself, her backpack and him to the Vineyard where she leaves him tied up in the vines next to Katma. After checking on the two others there and ensuring they weren't coming too anytime soon, she teleports away to find the next to join them.

For some reason Kilowog finds all the effort the human has put into her traps funny. For one they are badly concealed, barely functional and all in the wrong sizes, like she doesn't know what size of creatures she is hoping to catch.

"_Sure hope the little poozer isn't starving, but she seems to know some of the fruits."_ He muses, having sampled the boiled fruit he found in the cooking pot, though it was cold and over boiled, Kilowog had eaten the whole thing with delight nonetheless. It is one of the first personal things Lantern recruits learn about Kilowog when they arrive at Oa, he is an omnivore. John is still waiting for him to replace his favorite movie that Kilowog once ate when he mistook it for a snack when Flash and him went looking for his battery.

As the trail ends, he finds himself on the plateau Raven fought Sinestro on; he can tell the rough boulders and craters there have been made recently. They all bear the signs of battle, some with scorch marks and other with claw marks. Kilowog lets this ring scan the area, finding a few traces of blood.

"Poozers, we have a problem, at am at a plateau that indicates someone has been in a fight here very recently."

"_I will be there shortly." _John replies.

"Kat? Kyle?" Kilowog asks into his ring, getting no reply, which worries him. "Katma? Kyle? Come in, do you read me?" Still nothing. He keeps trying till John lands besides him. "I can't get hold of Kat or Kyle." John tries his ring, getting the same result.

"Damnit. There is something wrong with this whole picture." John says in a frustrated tone as he begins looking at the area. "What's going here Mogo?" He asks out loud.

"_My charge did battle here with a very unwelcome visitor; I did not see the result of the conflict."_ Mogo replies.

"Where are Kyle and Kat?" Kilowog asks.

"_Hmm they appear to be unconscious in the jungle, I cannot pinpoint their location."_ The two understands Mogo's trouble; to them it would be like picking out an individual hair on their own heads, if they weren't both bald.

"Right, mission has changed." John says while going into combat mode. "What are we up against Mogo."

"_I am unsure, but it relies on stealth and lighting fast strikes. I sense it has moved to a cave system located south of the area Green Lantern Kyle Rayner was searching."_

The two quickly flies off in the given direction, from the shadow of one of the boulders, Raven teleports to the caves, having heard the one they call Mogo give out the directions, wondering why he was leading them there? Having now heard the name several times, she assumes he is on the planet somewhere.

"Hold up John, I want to know exactly why the Justice League thought this girl was bad." Kilowog demands as the pair fly to their destination.

"It's not your concern Kilowog." John replies.

"It's my concern when your black ops, leaves holes in Mogo and two of our guys are missing! Either this girl is a magnet for trouble or you did something to tick her off." Kilowog says angrily as he flies in front of and stops them both.

John sighs. "All right, weeks ago another Leaguer was put in the hospital by the one I've brought here. We all jumped on the story we was told, that she were mentally controlling one of the founders and a bunch of kids. The majority eventually cleared her of that charge, but half of us are still suspicious of her; me included."

"She must have some serious flaws for you to be doing this." Kilowog notes without moving an inch.

"According to all reliable sources, her dad is virtually the ultimate evil Kilowog. Sorry for being suspicious of someone with that kind of parent."

"Right, when this is over and we are all safe and sound I will have to report this John. I'm sorry but when you indirectly endanger the Corp, I have priories." Kilowog says before continuing the flight, John slumps his shoulders feeling defeated already, this was not what he had in mind.

"_All I thought was to have Mogo take a look at her for a few days and now everything is messed up. Damnit, what are you doing Raven?"_

"Looks dark." Kilowog notes as the pair looks into the crack in the ground.

"Yup, you aren't getting scared are you?" John asks, trying to ease the tension between them.

"In blackest night and all that, right?" Kilowog replies before floating feet first into to the pit with John in tow, as John's bald head disappears into the earth, the sun finally sinks below the horizon.

"_Switching to silent mode." _Johns voice says in Kilowog's head as they touch down on the cavern floor.

"_Roger. Ring scan for major biological signs."_

"_Scanning…biological found, location unconfirmed."_ His ring replies.

"_So it's down here, whatever it is." _John replies as his light falls on an opening in the wall, taking a peek inside reveals another cavern and at least two more openings. _"Like an ant hill."_ John thinks while moving inside, followed with a little difficulty by Kilowogs larger frame.

"_So are we going to split up and do like the kids in those movie's we've watched?"_ Kilowog asks, referring to the horror movies they watch from time to time, mostly for fun as their jobs tend to be a lot scarier.

"_Whatever this is has already taken down two solitary Lanterns, it might be better if we stick together for this." _John reasons. As they pick a crack and squeeze through.

"_Could spend a week looking though this place." _Kilowog complains as the new cave looks exactly like the others.

"_You're welcome to go look for Kyle and Kat."_ John replies. As if on cue a dull boom is head from somewhere, with the cave walls distorting the sounds it's hard to tell from where.

"_Ring, triangulate origin of sound." _Kilowog instructs. As they watch the ring shows a 3D projection of the sound waves, giving them a map of the cave system, which is extensive, John is reminded of a model his chemistry teacher used to pull out. The map shows there are 27 almost circular caves clustered up here, some going far into the ground and two having surface access. The sound has been triangulated to have originated two caves from the one they are currently in, that is enough for the two, who quickly pick their way into the caves. Finding nothing but a huge boulder blocking the only other exit. _"What a coincidence."_ Kilowog notes.

"_Out." _John says quickly, seeing a trap. Behind them two booms like the one they heard before, announces that more passageways are being blocked, which leaves only one. As the two Lanterns examine the map again to see where the remaining opening leads, a voice is heard in the darkness.

"Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos...Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos…Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos…" the chant continues, rising in volume, the Lanterns are puzzled as the ring seems to display each chant coming from a different cave. The chant continues until the echoes bouncing back and forth makes it impossible to hear the words, the two covers their ears. As the canopy seems at its loudest, one voice cuts through them all but it only chant one word.

"AZERATH! AZERATH! AZERATH!" While still holding their hands to their ears the pair of lanterns begins feeling tremors in the ground and the chants being replaces by a rumbling sound.

The pair looks at the ring again and sees a large source of the rumbling sound heading towards them. As they look at the remaining opening, a dark mass of four eyed rats spill into the room like water, all heading in their direction.

"MOVE!" John shouts as he takes to the air, and blasts a hole into the roof, opening into another cave. As the two make their way to safety they see the horde look at them before piling out of the cave. "I hate rats."

"Don't we all? I'm actually quite scared of them." A single voice John recognizes comes from the center of the cave. Both Lanterns spin around pointing their weapons at the speaker. A single figure sits floating in the center of the cave in a meditative position; from head to toe she is covered in mud.

"Raven?" John asks.

"Correct." She answers, John is unsure if he should be threatened or relieved. "Took you long enough."

"Umm…found?" John asks. Kilowog has not lowered his ring.

"True, but the game is not yet over." Raven replies calmly as she stands up to float a little over the ground.

"John it's her!" Kilowog says as he fires a beam at Raven, who dodges out of the way. As she lands an awful screeching sounds begins to fill their heads, like a swarm of locusts and nails across a blackboard, the effect is immediate.

"Can't focus." John says with grinding, he fires a beam himself, which is a mile off its target.

"That's the idea." Raven replies as she throws her arms wide, the shadows around her seems to come alive in shapes of a flock of birds that swarm around the two. They are merely meant to get distract them, as Raven teleports behind the two. She grabs hold of John in a choke hold, but merely needing the proximity to force his mind to fall into a deep sleep. Putting John on the ground, she lets the birds and the noise disappear leaving Kilowog standing. "Give up?" She asks while looking the much larger Kilowog in the eyes.

"Lady when you mess with one Lantern you mess with 'em all." He replies while steam blows out of his nostrils.

"As you wish." She says as the noise returns with a much greater intensity.

"NAAR!" Kilowog, unable to think clearly, does the only thing he can; charge. Raven has a short second of déjà vu; reminded of her fight with the towering Royal Guards in the coliseum on Themyscira, before she echoes the memory, by spinning around herself and slams her foot into the right side of Kilowogs head, dropping him instantly.

"Game over." Raven says quietly, while smirking on the inside.

_Later:_

John awakens to the roar of waterfalls and the call of distant birds. Opening his eyes he sees clear blue sky above him and the sun warms his face.

"Was it all a dream?" He mumbles to himself, recalling much darkness and worry but he can't remember if it was all a dream or not. Sitting up his head is spiked by a sudden headache. "Guess not." Forcing himself to sit up he looks around himself, spotting his fellow Lanterns lying, as he did, on natural square slabs of rock near the cliffs of a huge canyon, in the distance he can see the opposite edge where a large waterfall falls into the abyss. He moves over to Kyle who is nearest to him, noticing his fellow human is covered in crusting mud. Grabbing the man's arm he tries waking him. "Come on Kyle, this is not the time to sleep."

Groggily the man stirs. "Uhh…what happened? Last I checked I was in the swamp at dusk." He tries to sit up as well. "Ow, I didn't know Mogo had trucks we had to get numbers on?" He says while clutching his head, John smiles at him before moving over to Katma.

He regards his former teacher and love interest for a moment before touching her arm as well, unlike Kyle she is up immediately. "What! Where!? Sinestro!" She looks around confused, before her eyes settles on John. "John we have to hurry Siniestro is on Mogo!" She jumps off her bed and almost collapses into Johns arms as the same headache that is infecting the others strikes her.

"Easy Kat, what do you mean Sinestro is here?" John talks slowly to calm the woman down.

"I saw him at the end of my trail, but then something jumped me." She explains.

"I think it jumped all of us." Kyle says as he stands up. "I remember something pulled me into the swamp, but then it all went black. Hey, has anyone seen our rings?" He says as he notices the missing pieces of jewelry. The others check their fingers, finding their rings missing.

"That witch." John curses, before explaining his encounter with Raven in the caves. Finishing his tale he moves to see if he can revive Kilowog, who is sporting a large bruise on the side of his head.

"I don't get it, what did she mean by 'the game still being on'? You found her didn't you?" Kamta asks.

"Maybe she changed the rules?" Kyle speculates.

"To take down four officers of the Green Lantern Corp? Come on Kyle, in know you're new, but you should know better." Katma retorts, while John shakes the large pink alien who just grumbles in his sleep and rolls over on his side.

"Well at least he is just asleep." John says with a smirk that evaporates as he remembers something. "Unfortunately he is just asleep…" The others groan along with him, Kilowog is a notoriously heavy sleeper, so heavy in fact that he has a special bed that flips him onto the floor when he needs to get up, though even that has failed a few times. "Any of you wanna help me push?" The others jump over to stand beside John. "And one, and two and three." He counts as they all push, landing Kilowog face down on the ground. He immediately jumps up and stands erect.

"Sir no sir! I was not sleeping on the post again! Huh…what?" The others fight to hold back the snickering as one of the most senior trainers in the Corp manages to embarrass himself with a reflex. "Aww poozers, you shouldn't do that…ow!" He says as first his own headache begins to make itself known as well as the large bruise on the side of his head.

"Well since we all appear to be almost ok, but ring-less, what are we going to do now?" Kyle asks, as Katma walks over to inspect Kilowog's wound.

"_I believe you should remain where you are, fear not, the danger has passed."_ Mogo's deep voice sounds with their heads, making them all cringe.

"Ow Mogo, not so loud." Kyle complains.

"_My apologies Green Lantern, but you will be joined shortly."_

"So I guess we just sit tight." Katma says as she sits down on Kilowog's stone bed, her head is not really up for anything anyways. The others begin to loiter around; Kyle begins watching the sky while lying on his bed, imagining shapes into distant clouds. John stands silently and watches the distant cliffs, his mind going over the events, wondering how he is going to get out of this one. Kilowog moves into the nearby trees at their backs for some shade. Fortunately they only have to wait around 10 minutes before John catches sight of movement in the distance.

"We got incoming!" He says before scrambling for cover, pulling Kyle off his bunk into the trees for cover.

"Hey, Mogo said it was all right, jeez." Kyle manages before John clamps a hand over his mouth. Kat looks strangely the pair before moving into the tree as well.

As they watch a black spec in the distance moves over the canyon in their direction, as it moves closer they can see it is a person with something black following it. They creep further back and down in an attempt to remain hidden, Kyle beginning to lack a little oxygen with John's hand still covering his mouth and nose. As the person comes close the cliff, John recognizes Raven even as she is covered in crusted mud like Kyle. She halts a few feet away from the cliff, looking form side to side, looking each Lantern in the eyes.

"I'm an empath, means I can sense emotions. And I could see you guys from the other side of the cliff." She says before moving forwards and lands at the edge of the cliff, letting the two objects that's following her float forwards onto Katma's and Kyles beds. "John you might want to let go of Kyle before he suffocates." She says noting the fear creeping into in junior Lantern, who lets out an audible gasp as he breath is allowed back.

"Thanks." Kyle says as he stands up and walks out into the clearing, ignoring the hand that missies his ankle. "So you're the one John dropped off here?" He asks as he passes in between the two containers.

"Dropped is the correct word." Raven replies as she slings the large backpack she is carrying onto the ground.

"Man, and I thought you needed saving. Say would you happen to have our rings?" He asks as he moves closer.

"Yup." She says while pulling off a small pouch at her hip made of a leaf and fastened with a length of vine around her waist, replacing her usual belt that had been hidden away in the backpack, opening it to reveal its contents to be four green rings. "Here you go." She says while tossing one to Kyle who catches it in one hand.

"Thanks." He replies while putting it on; "I think you can come out now guys." Calls over his shoulder, getting Katma and Kilowog to come out, who gets their rings tossed to them as well.

"Come on poozer, it's the real deal." Kilowog says as he tests his ring for tampering, coming up negative. Slowly John comes out as well, getting his ring tossed to him as well. Unlike the others he quickly puts his on and immediately points it at Raven.

"No sudden movement's kid!" He says sternly, the others giving him a confused look, before Kilowog and Katma raise theirs as well. Raven appears more amused by looking down the three rings than actually worried.

"Don't be silly John. If I really wanted to hurt you, why would I bring you here or hand you back your weapons?" She says with a confident smirk on her face.

"Raven I am going to have to charge you under Guardian Law 3597, assaulting an officer of the Green Lantern Corp." John says coldly.

"Stand down Green Lanterns." Ganthet says as he drifts into view, landing between his officers and Raven. Katma and Kilowog lowers theirs immediately at the order, John does so after a few seconds, putting on a scowl. "What has transpired here has been sanctioned by the Guardians and we would not approve of having Raven repeat her treatment of Sinestro." At his words, Raven dissipates the aura surrounding the object lying on Katma's bed, revealing a severely mauled Sinestro. The four just stare at the broken alien.

"Jeeze, he looks worse than he did when me and Superman fought him." Kyle admits.

"Those injuries, you gave him during the fight on the rock plateau?" Kilowog asks, now secretly glad his only injury is a sore head.

"Besides the swelling, yes, I had some steam to blow off." Raven replies.

"So what was he doing here?" Katma asks.

"A serious matter, one that will be discussed when I return to Oa." Ganthet says. "Green Lantern Mogo reported Ravens presence after failing to make contact himself, we observed her the following days and nights, trying to deduct her motives. On the second night Sinestro came and offered her a ring like his, because of her ability to inspire great fear in others. After declining his offer and his predictable retaliation, Raven proceeded to capture Sinestro, wanting to interrogate him regarding the use of the rings and any weaknesses. At this point we Guardians decided we needed a closer examination, something that angered Raven even though she retaliated to my initial intrusion, which leads to my current presence here."

"Hold up, Sinestro wanted you to join him?" Kyle asks, having heard the stories about the arrogant Sinestro who shared power with no one.

"Apparently." Raven replies, not really caring why this should be a big deal. Although she always would have wanted it otherwise, she knows she will probably always be the creepy one.

"His newfound interest in spreading his own light will be addressed and dealt with." Ganthet continues.

"But you were here the whole time?" Katma asks, wondering if last night will have repercussions for them.

"The Council has kept a close watch on matters here, with me on site. And none of you will face repercussions for your actions here; we see this matter as a failed exercise on your parts and know you will strive to improve yourselves because of it. Before I return to Oa with the fallen, I will leave you with this. Kyle Rayner, you must strive to remain focused on the job at hand, even though you might find the local fauna interesting. Katma Tui, you must work on your reaction time, even with the obstacles you had ample time to react, yet you fell without a fight. Kilowog, I leave you only with the notion that you should not stop for snacks while on the job. John Steward, I expect the next time you plan on using Corp material, you will ask permission and do take more care of the people you transport as their flight may need more concentration than a sudden drop allows. Raven, remember what I said about the other lights and I will convey my belief that we will meet again. Also I will have a look at your request, you are correct that the inhabitants of that planet are under our jurisdiction when their wars spill out of their own system. Good day to you." With that Ganthet disappears in a green flash, taking Sinestro with him, leaving the Lanterns and Raven behind on the ledge.

"So, who wants fruit?" Raven asks to break the silence that has fallen, letting the second aura vanish, revealing a large assortment of different fruits.

_Hall of Justice, Metropolis;_

"You're joking." Roy says while eyeing Nightwing.

"Nope." Nightwing replies with a smirk.

"So you're telling me that Miss Dark and Mysterious, who prefers staying out of the sun, actually spent two weeks on Paradise Island with nothing but physical training and didn't murder anyone?" Roy waves his hands around the air in disbelief, to his ears it sounds more like a thing Starfire would have been doing.

"That pretty much sums it up." Nightwing says without batting an eye, content with knowing a lot more than his friends. Secretly it does annoy him a little it was by accident that he found out, but then again, it was an accident Raven figured him out as well. "Actually I think Rae and Diana are quite friendly now."

"Wake me up when the world goes back to normal." Roy sighs.

"All right yall, I'm almost finished!" Cyborg calls from the ship. "Only a few more diagnostics to run and a few circuit boards to fix and we are ready to go."

"YAY!" Beastboy shouts.

"That's great Cyborg, now we only have to wait for Raven to get back." Nightwing says, getting Roy's jaw to drop again.

"You mean you're not going to race off again to rescue her?" He asks.

"We can't; for one thing, we are bringing a ruler back to her world where she is at war. Two we need to negotiate a trade off, Blackfire for Star. And we can't count on her highness to be either fair or helpful in that matter, so having Rae along, who can speak Taramanese, is crucial. But most importantly, Rae wants to be there for Starfire." Nightwing explains.

"But…but aren't you two…?" Roy continues, Nightwing sighs.

"I care a lot for Star, but as a friend. We broke up a few months after the thing with the Brotherhood." At this Roy falls over on the ground.


	40. The Verdict

"So why was it you decided to hunt us all down instead of playing hide and seek?" Kyle asks as he looks up from his melon as he, Raven and two of the other Lanterns are sitting on the beds, with Katma and Kilowog sharing one. After Ganthet left John had left them as well, to sulk somewhere in peace, as Katma expected him to do.

"That decision was made after I woke up from my crash landing here, and getting my leg un-impaled." Raven replies.

"Explains the blood we found, but you don't appear injured" Kilowog notes, distinctly remembering her using both legs in the cave.

"I can heal myself and others, but I had to get somewhere safe before I could do it. Wasn't sure if there are any larger predators around here that would use the chance and eat me."

"That small cave with the winter clothes?" Katma asks and Raven nods.

"How bad was it?" Kyle continues.

"Bad enough so I couldn't use my leg before I got it healed. I hope it is not standard procedure for you guys when you drop people off?" She asks.

"It's not, John thought you could fly on your own?" Katma guesses.

"Well I can, but I need a little time to focus to do it, and we were moving at speed back then."

"I'll make sure he remembers it till the next time." Katma says reassuringly.

"So what did Sinestro do to end up like that?" Kyle continues.

"I wanted information I was sure he had, mainly on how to fight you people. At first he of course just seethed at me, when I thought he was dehydrated enough and I tried to be nice by offering him water, he spat me in the face for it. After that I found a hive of ants I dumped on him. After that your superiors wanted a talk and believe me, having Ganthet invading your head is not fun. After getting sent back, I was pissed, to put it mildly, and Sinestro was the closest candidate." Raven explains while grabbing a fresh fruit.

"I will report under the generally clueless banner, but what exactly is it you can do. Besides making noises and yank me into the swamp?" Kyle asks, while Kilowog throws another whole melon into his mouth.

"Generally it is telekinesis I rely on and something I call my soul-self, where I detach a part of myself to form shapes and objects." She says, while demonstrating by letting her shadow animate into a raggedy shape of a bird that swoops down and carries off one of the fruits she levitated.

"Nice, is it like an inbuilt power ring?" Kyle says while watching the circling bird.

"Well kinda, but I doubt it's quite as powerful or versatile. Just curious, just how much has John told you about me?" She asks wondering if John had deliberately neglected to mention how her powers worked, or if he genuinely expected it to be a game of hide and seek.

"Nothing really, just that you were here and we had to go find you." Katma says, while resting her head on her fist.

"He told me you are half-demon, whatever that is, after we lost contact you two poozers." Kilowog says while nodding at Katma and Kyle.

"You're kidding, there's no such thing as demons." Kyle says as he waits for Kilowog to agree with him.

"Unfortunately Kyle Rayner there are such things, if you go over the list of people the Justice League has on its rooster you will find one. But if you want proof, here." Raven says, halfway amused by the man, as she changes. Kilowog gets some of his remaining melon stuck in his throat and begins coughing, the others look shocked. "This is what I looked like when I beat the crap out of Sinestro."

"That is real?" Kyle asks, apparently not believing his eyes.

"Very real." Raven says matter-of-factly while letting the still circling bird drop its fruit into her waiting hand.

"Hold up, let me run a scan." Kilowog says before letting his rings green light wash over Raven.

"Detected, subject; Unknown. Species: human-infernal hybrid. Place of origin: Earth, space sector 2814 and other dimensional realm termed Inferno. Capabilities, unspecified. Threat index, range: minor to extinction level event. Updates required." Kilowog lowers his ring again thinking it was done, before it speaks again. "Updates received, subject updated. Subject: Raven, Species: human-infernal hybrid. Place of origin: Earth, space sector 2814 and other dimensional realms known as Azerath and Inferno. Capabilities; vast psionic abilities, physical projection of consciousness termed Soul-Self, shapeshifting. Human form at beyond human physical capabilities, skilled at unarmed and combat with staffs. Infernal form; greatly increased physical and psionic capabilities. Threat index: major to extinction level. Notes: Access to super science termed; magic. Host of deceased dimension of Azerath and its population. Recent inductee of the Earth based Amazons warrior-tribe. Offspring of infernal overlord known as Trigon, deceased. Referred to as The Gem of Trigon, see file 15697642, cross index 'prophecy, Trigon'. Subject is a potential candidate for recruitment, into the Green Lantern Corp and others based on the emotional spectrum." As the ring finally finishes, the group is overcome by an odd silence, as they try to digest it all, the subject, of course, is the first to break it.

"Isn't it nice being dissected and categorized while you are listening in?" Raven says flatly. Kyle whistles a long note, clearly impressed.

"Quite a sheet you got there. Only other time I've seen an extinction event level threat was when Kat took me out to see a Suneater. Wait, did it say Amazons? Like Wonder Woman Amazons?" He asks.

"Well I guess the event that the ring is referring to is a suicide on my part. At least that what it takes if I wanted to bring Trigon into the world. And yeah, it did say Amazons, but don't tell John, it's a secret between me and Wonder Woman till I get back."

"So the rhyme is real?" Katma ask, Raven notes a tint of fear has crept into the woman.

"Unfortunately. Do you mind if I ask, are you from the same planet as Sinestro by any chance?" She asks, not failing to notice how she shares the skin color and pointed ears.

"Skin gives it away, huh?" Katma sighs. "He casts shame on all of us from Korugar, and wherever I go I know people give me the strange looks because I am his immediate successor in the Corp. Even my own people hate me now because I was chosen; no one there understands that Sinestro became our despot due to his own personality while he was still a Green Lantern, they think he did so with the Corps blessing." Raven can sympathize with the woman.

"Sorry I asked, I know what that's like." Raven say as she changes back while smiling weakly.

"It's ok, I'm used to it." Katma sighs; they all know she is lying.

"So what was it you asked the Guardians?" Kilowog asks, changing the subject.

"I asked him about something regarding the Vega system and its inhabitants, but you don't need to know any more than that. Maybe at another time."

"You're are going in there aren't you?" Kilowog guesses.

"Yes, I am, I have a close friend who is a native of Tamaran that lies in the Vega system. One a few friends and I intend to retrieve when I get back. I know you guys aren't allowed inside and Ganthet told me you don't know why exactly, but is there anything you can tell me about the place?"

"Not really, but in the past couple of years traffic in and out has increased, mostly the bad sort like mercenaries, pirates and the like, place is a refuge from those running from us. We can't confirm anything, but we hear rumors of wars being fought inside the system. Something about a sudden shift in rulership on one of the planets seems to have sparked it all a few years ago." Kilowog says, noting Raven is nodding slowly. "You know something?"

"It just confirms what I know; a few weeks ago a battalion of residents from the Vega system came to Earth looking for something. We are going to attempt a trade off, but it would help to know what the place is like. Thanks for the info."

"No problem, just be careful when ya go in, that place is one of the worst we know of." Kilowog says. "Hmm seems there is one who would like to talk to you." Kilowog says while pointing to the opposite cliff, where they can see a small figure waving at them.

"Who's that?" Raven asks wondering how Kilowog knows.

"Mogo, seems he's found away to address you in person, but he will tell you more." Raven nods at them before she flies over.

As she comes closer she sees the figure is actually much bigger than Kilowog and obviously a construct, as it is only vaguely humanoid, when she lands in front of it she sees it consists of nothing but rocks, dirt and the vines that keep it together. What at a distance looked like its head proves to be a featureless rock.

"Mogo?" Raven ask, not sure if she should be silly for asking something that is clearly not alive.

"Gree…tings." The thing huffs and wheezes with a voice that tells Raven someone is going thought an awful lot of trouble to manipulate the thing to speak. "Peased…to…eet…you." She notes it is not capable of making all the sounds a human throat is capable of.

"Umm…hello."

"Pease…lower…uor…dehences." It says.

"Excuse me?" Raven asks confused by the request. It slowly raises a muddy arm with roots sticking out of its end and gently touches Ravens head.

"Hard…talk…like…this." Raven blinks a few times, as she understands what it means, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath she relaxes her mind. _"Thank you, I must confess I am used to communicating by my fellow Lanterns rings." _The deep voice echoes in her head.

"_Well, um, glad I could help, but who are you? I have heard your name mentioned a few times, but I got confused when I thought they were meaning the planet. Is there anywhere where we can meet in person perhaps?"_ Something like a chuckle answers Raven.

"_I am Mogo, largest of the Green Lanterns and unknown to you, your host for the past couple of days."_

"_You live here?" _Raven sends back, receiving another chuckle.

"_I am here; while you have been here you have walked my forests, taken shelter in my caves and slept in my trees." _Raven blinks a few times when she realizes what Mogo means.

"You are the entire planet." She gasps out loud.

"_I am."_ He confirms. _"Since you woke up from your rough landing, I have attempted to contact you, without success."_

"_But why did you want to, I mean it's not like we can trade experiences." _She asks.

"_One grows lonely when one cannot socialize and it's been a while since I've had visitors from outside the Corp. But let me explain my function, as you may imagine being in the Corp can be stressful and filled with traumatic experiences. When the burden becomes a problem that affects the Lanterns, they come here for a chance to relax and to receive guidance."_ Mogo explains.

"_So you are like a therapist?"_ She asks.

"_That word holds no meaning to me, but I help when Lanterns hurt in places doctors cannot heal. Green Lantern John Steward asked that I merely observed while you interacted with my curative powers, but your unfortunate landing and subsequent decision to hunt my fellow Lanterns prompted me to contact the Guardians."_

"_Interact?"_

"_My powers allow me to conjure those beings the Lanterns need to hear comforting words from, but I need to be able to scan their thoughts and your mind is fortress."_ He explains.

"_My mind is just a private thing, and it has had too many visitors recently." _A sudden thought strikes her. _"You don't get many psychics in the Corp?"_

"_Alas, it has been ages since I last encountered one outside of the Guardians. But I remember him being an open minded fellow. But tell me, now that you have the offer, would you like to talk to someone?"_

"_Thank you, but no. Asides from my friends, I literally carry my home town around. I don't really need to talk to phantoms."_

"_I understand, friends are a good thing to have."_ Mogo replies with an undercurrent of disappointment lining his voice._ "Maybe one day you will accept my offer, you are of course welcome to visit."_

"_I will, if I can find you."_ She replies, knowing even if Mogo is huge, he is a dust mote in the universe.

"_Just ask your local Green Lantern for directions."_ He replies with a little cheer in his voice.

"Raven, when you are ready, we will be heading back to Earth." John Steward says as he hovers over the cliff, to him Raven has been walking around the mud construct in silence.

"_Perfect timing. Mogo is there anywhere around here where one can take a shower without risking someone peeking?"_ Raven sends to the planet, guessing John is not hearing them.

"_At the foot of the cliffs there is a small cave, but the water is quite cold."_ Raven nod at this, a cold shower would be nice considering the heat.

"I will go catch a quick shower then I'll join you."

"Sure." John says before flying over to the other Lanterns.

"Hey poozer, finally done moping?" Kilowog greets as John touches down, in the distance as small speck seems to fall off the cliff and into the abyss, John just grunts at him. "I tell ya, that girl of yours has a beefy sheet working for her."

"So I guessed, so what do you think?" John asks.

"I think she's cute." Kyle says while watching the clouds, Katma rolls her eyes at him. "But I am not sure if I'd take her home to mom."

"Do you have a slightly more useful thought?" John asks.

"I'm just the rookie offering my opinion." Kyle replies, completely unbothered by John's sour reply.

"Well, if ya ask me, she's ok. She changed the rules for payback, and could have served us all up for bacon if she wanted to. Heck, we could be searching for Sinestros parts right now." Kilowog interrupts, diverting John's attention away from Kyle.

"It's easy to beat up someone when you massively overpower them, do we even know what happened to his ring?" John asks, not wanting trust too easily.

"I had a look at those scans we made from the plateau last night; there was residue from his ring present. The way I figure it Siniestro got his ring back somehow and the two ended up in a slugging match." Kilowog continues.

"_You are quite correct Senior Lantern Kilowog. When she returned from Oa, Raven gave Sinestro his ring back so she wouldn't accidentally kill him, perhaps also to allow herself a little more freedom. And to your unanswered question John Steward, Ganthet destroyed Sinestro's ring."_ Mogo sends.

"Thank you Mogo, Kat?" John asks his old teacher.

"If she is like this good without a ring, I'd like to see what happens if she actually gets one." John sighs; he is alone with his distrust. "Care to tell us why you think she is so bad you have to ask four other Lanterns and one Guardian for confirmations?" Katma says, noticing Johns sigh.

"Because of her, I've seen a Leaguer cry wolf twice, both apparently being fake. And then the Leaguer did something I'd never thought I would see her do, call me paranoid, but when trusted colleagues start acting funny because someone pops up, I get suspicious."

"Think ya have been lookin at this too much from one side poozer. If ya friend has stared herself blind on the bad spot, she may have wanted to believe she can't be wrong. Think about it poozer." Kilowog says while patting John on the shoulder, clearly indicating he thinks John has done the same.

_Later:_

"You know I thought you'd be completely lost in a jungle?" John says as he and Raven let Mogo grow smaller behind them.

"I didn't mention I spent around two months in South-East Asia while I was looking for something." Raven replies while sitting cross-legged besides John, this is his first attempt at an actual conversation.

"Hmm, did you find what you were looking for?" He asks.

"I did, thankfully."

"So what did the Smurf Brigade want?" Raven quirks an eyebrow at the name, guessing he means the Guardians.

"They can probably hear you." She notes, thinking the Guardians would be listening in on whatever was going on near the rings.

"They don't really care, besides they know we are joking." John replies with a smirk. "So what were they after?"

"While you guys were out, Ganthet told me they considered me interesting, at first because Mogo caught wind of what I planned to do. When I began considering forcibly looking into Sinestro's head, they apparently decided to have a closer look at me."

"So they pulled you in for a friendly chat." John speculates.

"More like a friendly invasion of my mind."

"Yeah they like to do that, they think it's more efficient than just talking. Usually they do it without one noticing, but I guess you did."

"I tried keeping him out; when that failed I returned the favor." Ravens reply gets John to look at her with a strange look. "What?"

"You went into Ganthet's head?"

"Like I said, I returned the favor. But while he got to know everything, I got billions of years of memories. To me it was like crashing five cars into a single car garage, while they were doing 90. I can't make sense of most of it, some day I might. You look surprised." She notes.

"I'm surprised they didn't throw you into a cell for doing that, it's hard enough for us regulars to get a meaningful conversation with them." John says with a disbelieving look on his face.

"They keep that tight." Raven nods, from her short interaction with the entire council, she guessed as much. They remain quiet for a while before John opens again.

"What was Kyle doing when you jumped him?" He asks wondering what it was Kyle had seen that distracted him so much Ganthet had to mention it.

"He was considering taking a small crocodile-like reptile with him home."

"Hrmpf, still a rookie." He grunts while covering a smirk.

"He should have seen its mother." Raven says off handedly.

"Yeah, there's not much large wildlife on Mogo, but the reptiles tend to get huge. So you don't like rats?" He asks.

"Like any sensible person, I don't like the wild sort. You?"

"Hate them, as a kid I used to live in a place where we had to check the drains a lot for them. You?"

"One of the first weeks we had after moving into the Tower in Jump City, Beastboy found it funny to jump up my leg while changed into one."

_Flashback:_

It's late afternoon in the Tower on a quiet day, Robin is casually reading the paper by the dining table. Starfire is exploring the contents of the kitchen. Cyborg is off somewhere in the Tower installing something. And Raven is quietly sitting in the semi-circular couch reading one of her books, with no one to play games with Beastboy wandered off to find something else to amuse him with some time ago, so the room is oddly quiet.

Unseen by all is the green rat sticking its head around the corner of the couch, the corner closest to Raven who has found a favored spot a little to the left of the center.

"_This is going to be soo sweet." _Beastboy thinks._ "She's so moody, this will get her to loosen up."_ Counting to three he races across the floor and jumps up Ravens bare leg.

"ARG!" Raven shrieks and jumps at the sudden contact, seeing the offender she does the first thing that comes to mind and swats the green rat with her book before jumping up on the couch. The blow is hard enough for Beastboy to go rigid and lands limply on the ground with all legs in the air before changing into himself as the others rush over.

"Raven, what's the matter?! Beastboy?" Robin asks, Starfire rubbing her head, which she hit on the way up.

"Friend Raven, why is friend Beastboy on the ground?" Starfire asks.

"Uuuh…dude that hurt!" Beastboy says as he sits up while rubbing his head. "What was that for?"

"I don't like rats." Raven says flatly, having had the time to regain her composure. Later they found out the TV was broke; the repairs came out of Beastboy's account.

_End of flashback._

"Can't blame you for that reaction, doesn't he know people don't like that kind of stuff." John says, vividly imagining what had happened.

"He is carefree and for some reason thought I was the best target for his pranks when he couldn't pull them on Cyborg. Guess he thought I needed cheering up." She speculates.

"On the outside you do seem like you need it." John notes.

"Probably true, but it beats breaking stuff wherever I go." Raven replies. "You know Starfire and I once switched bodies?"

"You're serious?" John asks, even if he does know it has happened before to some Leagues.

"Yup and Starfire is the opposite of me, while I take effort to hide my emotions, she wears hers on her sleeves and is dependent on being able to express them to make her powers work."

"So while she got your powers and had trouble controlling them, you had problems accessing hers?" John speculates.

"That about sums it up, but here's the full story." At this she begins retelling the first encounter the Titans had with the Puppet King. The two continue to swap stories for the remainder of the journey home.

_The Watchtower:_

"So Bats, what do you think of Supes' idea?" Flash asks the man next to him, the pair having drawn monitor duty, Batman is busy reading the Financial Times, while Wally is sitting with his feet up, Bruce having long ago given up trying to stop him.

"Hmm?" It was quiet usual for the silent and usually brooding man to completely tune Wally out, only to suddenly latch onto something that was serious.

"You know the recruitment drive amongst the Titans?"

"There is a lot of potential in that group." Bruce says without looking up from his paper.

"I feel a 'but' coming."

"Some are too young and some need more training." Batman continues.

"And Kara and Courtney are the same age as most of the Titans." Flash continues mentioning the two youngest Leaguers.

"Keeping Supergirl near Clark makes her manageable and the same with Stargirl and her stepfather."

"I'm guessing it is not now I suggest you could have brought Dick up here as well?" Batman finally looks at him. "Sorry."

"One, he doesn't have powers. Two, he still had much to learn back then and finally we were not on speaking terms when he got old enough for consideration." Batman says quietly before returning to his paper.

"So are there any of them you know won't pass?" Flash asks after letting a few moments pass in silence, which was like hours to him.

"Obviously Starfire will be of questionable quality after four years of her sisters hospitality. The Guatemalan twins are too young. Kole and the caveman Gnark have reasons to remain hidden. Also Jinx has a troubled past I am not certain she is free of. Other than that, I'm open to the potential of the rest. But it is their job to prove they have what it takes."

"So are we going to have them all following us around?" Flash asks with smirk.

"No, Raven is a special case. We will have to figure out some kind of test for the others."

"We could just have them fight each other for the spots, or have a meet-greet and demonstrate event?" Flash suggests, under his cowl Bruce rolls his eyes at the first suggestion. "Hey, look who's back." Flash notes a certain access code being used to open the hangar airlock.

"I'll let the Titans know she is back." Batman says while dialing a number.

10 minutes later the Titans are teleported onto the station and are directed by the Flash down to one of the meeting rooms. As they enter the room they find the backpack occupying one of the seats with a tall back arranged around the round table and Raven dozing off in one of the others, with her left hand and elbow supporting her head. Even though she took a shower in Mogo's natural waters, her clothes are still smudged with mud. Apparently she is so close to falling asleep that she doesn't even notice them entering. The four are surprised to say the least; for one thing, she never fell asleep anywhere outside of her room in the tower. The second; she is still missing her cloak and the midsection of her leotard and most of her sleeves.

"Umm…welcome back Rae?" Nightwing greets, like the others a bit worried if she would grow angry at their intrusion. She half-opens her right eye before opening the left. "Long flight?" He continues with a smirk, if she is annoyed she is hiding it.

"Very, and thanks." She says, blinking a few times trying to coax her mind back into action.

"Well that's a nice outfit Raven." Speedy notes with a smirk, Nightwing nudges him with his elbow for it. "What?" Raven stands up and looks down at herself somewhat surprised.

"Thought I changed that." She mumbles before letting the fabric join the two parts again. "It got a little uncomfortable in the jungle."

"What happened to your cloak?" Cyborg asks, knowing Raven never went anywhere without it, if she could help it.

"Green Lantern ruined it sadly and he is getting a new." Raven replies matter-of-factly.

"Soo…have you been mud wrestling or something?" Beastboy asks, getting a frosty stare form Raven as the only reply. "Sorry."

"You will hear all about it when the founders get here." Raven says while sitting down again. "John knows we are in a hurry to get to Tamaran and he hopes we can get everything cleared shortly." The others take seats as well, deftly avoiding taking any with symbols on the backs.

"So they expect to have you all sorted out today? You look bushed." Cyborg notes.

"Jet lag, what time and day is it by the way?" Actually Raven feels exhausted, and there is no clock in the room for her to tell the time by.

"August the 17th and its 3:00 AM in Gotham right now." Nightwing says as he rolls up a sleeve and checks his watch.

"The 17th? And I left the 10th? Has it really been a week?" Raven asks, struggling to remember more than three nights on Mogo.

"Guess the planet you ended on had a slower rotation than ours." Roy adds, having tried it once before, only that one had a faster rotation. "How many nights did you sleep?" He asks.

"One, where I got a full night worth, I was kind of busy the other two I remember." Raven replies in a tired voice.

"I'll go see if the cantina has something that looks like herbal tea." Nightwing says before getting up and walks out of the room.

"So how was camping in the wilds with GL?" Beastboy ventures.

"He dropped me off then went to some other planet, then came back to get me, so I don't know how he is at camping." Cyborg jaw drops onto the table.

"WHAT! He left you alone on a strange planet?!" He shouts while waving his hands in the air.

"Calm down Victor." Ravens tired stare is enough to get him to obey.

"Is it safe to enter?" John asks as he walks through the door followed by the other founders. Cyborg grumbles silently as they all take their seats and Raven banishing her backpack to the wall near the door.

"Raven if you would take the center seat please." Superman says motioning at the seat directly in front of him. "And Roy, I'm sorry, but Oliver wants you." Roy opens and closes his mouth a few times wanting to protests, but finally gives up with a sigh.

"Well, good luck Raven and bring back Starfire will you?" Roy says while getting up. "See you guys later."

"Later man." Cyborg calls after the retreating ginger head.

"Where is Nightwing?" Batman asks, as Raven takes the designated seat, with Cyborg and an empty seat on her left and the vacant seat for Nightwing and Beastboy on her right. The symbolism of the arrangement in front of Raven is not lost on her, Superman is directly across the table from her, with Batman on his right and Wonder Woman on his left. Next to Batman is first the Flash and then Hawkgirl, and on Diana's left is J'onn and John.

"He is out getting a cup of tea for Raven." Beastboy says.

"We will wait then." Batman says as he notices the slightly vacant look in Ravens eyes. _"Must be exhausted."_

"So is there a set order we get to hear all of this in?" Cyborg asks, having calmed himself down enough talk without shouting.

"We go through the list backwards in the order Raven was with us." Superman says, the others had noted that Diana had almost insisted on going last. "We are skipping Batman as he already told us of her time with him." After this the room falls into a strange silence, except for Flash's finger tapping. Raven is almost falling asleep in her seat, while she was used to late hours, a week with almost no sleep is pushing it.

"Should we wait with this for a few hours?" Superman asks as he notices it as well.

"No, I'll sleep on the flight or the cell; I don't want Starfire to suffer any more than she has to." Raven replies willing herself to be more awake. Internally Batman notes down he needs to send a shipment of herbal tea with them when they leave.

"I have to agree with her on this one." Nightwing says as he enters the room with a large cup of tea. "Here you go Rae." He says while handing Raven the plastic mug.

"Thanks." She says as she receives the cup, Superman clears his throat as Nightwing sits down.

"Ok, we all know you are eager to get Starfire back, so John will you begin?" He asks the man on his far left.

"Well, my test was to bring Raven to the functioning psychiatrist of the Green Lantern Corp, a sentient planet called Mogo, he has a power that allows him to help Lanterns when the job becomes too tough for them. I asked for his help without informing my superiors, since they generally disapprove the use of Corp material or personnel for purposes not directly linked to it or its mission. I had to leave Raven there alone because Mogo's powers won't work properly if more than one is in the target area. But my plan went wrong from the start, when I dropped Raven off; since I thought she could levitate instantaneously like a Lantern. And I think Raven knows better what happened next, since I flew off to Oa after seeing her disappear amongst the trees." He gets a few looks at this admission before they turn to her.

"Since John let me drop while we were moving forwards, I slammed into a tree and was knocked out. When I woke up I had several compressed ribs, a few bruises and a small branch impaling my leg." The room changes suddenly, with jaws figuratively dropping and angry stares being sent at John. "It wasn't that bad. After I freed myself I sought shelter where I could heal without risk, after I managed that, I decided to change the game John had told me we were playing." Raven says, sending the ball back to John who is beginning to look uncomfortable.

"Yeah…I told her we were playing hide and seek, that I would come back after a few days with some other Lanterns, I didn't tell her Mogo is alive. So from what I was told afterwards; Raven set out to give us a warm welcome."

"I planned to subdue and capture as many as I could." Raven ads, getting a few nods in understanding.

"She did, but her plans were overheard by Mogo, who notified my superiors who set a watch on her. I was told Raven could sense someone watching, but proceeded with her plans and set up several sites she intended on ambushing us at. As we can see, I asked Mogo to slow his rotation during the day, so Raven only saw three nights there. She spent the first day scouting and the second on preparing traps and setting up track for us to follow. On the second night, Sinestro decided to show up." John continues, Raven can tell he has gone into a mode where he is burying his emotions like a soldier bringing news to his superior.

"The red skinned guy with the yellow ring?" Flash asks, remembering the encounter he had with the yellow lantern.

"Yeah, he has apparently come to the conclusion that he cannot get his revenge, as he calls it, while he is one man versus the Guardians and the entire GLC. So he wanted to make his own Corp, and he wanted Raven in it. Raven did the right thing and declined, Sinestro retaliated but was captured."

"He told me he had a beef with the Lanterns I was going to be ambushing, and I wanted to know how to get around their rings." Raven adds. "Figured he might know something useful."

"So you capture one of their greatest enemies to get information." Batman notes with a small amount of surprise in his voice. The Titans figure being Sinestro during that time was not fun if he resisted.

"You invaded his mind?" J'onn asks, wondering if Raven had crossed her own boundary.

"No, I would only do that as a last resort since it hurts me if I have to fight my way into someone's head. Also I wasn't sure if he had any form of mental defenses." Batman nods at the explanation, it concurs with what Raven told him weeks ago.

"When Sinestro decided to play though and apparently spat Raven in the face, she dumped an ant hill on him." The room shifts to Raven at the mention.

"I offered him water and he decided to spit it at me instead. Pulled half his mustache off as well." She says mentions in an offhanded fashion.

"Anyways after this the Guardians decided to pull Raven off to Oa for a closer inspection. I haven't been told what they saw, but one of them entered her mind and she retaliated by peeking inside his. They green lighted her and her plans, knowing she would not really harm us, which was their primary concern. The one who entered her head even went with her back to Mogo to make sure there were no hard feelings."

"You realize most psychics consider it a gross violation of their person at such an intrusion?" J'onn asks.

"I do, now. But as some of you know, my superiors are for the most part no better than robots when it comes to feelings outside of willpower. And Ganthet, who did the intruding, decided to let Raven work out her anger on someone else before addressing her in person." After saying this, John lets his ring make a 3D image of Sinestro, as John saw him in his mauled condition, appear in the center of the table.

"I freed him and gave him his ring back before that." Raven adds before taking sip of her tea.

"Was it necessary?" Shayera asks.

"Necessary? Maybe not, but the anger I got from what the Guardian did would not go away. If it had not been Sinstro, it would have been one of the Lantern's or most likely Ganthet." Raven replies. "And I will like to say that Ganthet was watching the whole thing and did nothing." The table shifts back to John for confirmation.

"It's true, but he would have intervened if he thought Sinestro was in mortal danger. Anyways after she was done, Ganthet introduced himself and proceeded to mend fences by giving Raven the information she needed and alerted her we were coming before making himself scarce. When we arrived the first thing we found was the crash site and a small cave Raven had initially stayed in. Finding a set of winter clothes and six trails, I ordered Kilowog, Katma and Kyler to split up and look for Raven. Katma was the first to get ambushed at a site where Raven had hid Sinestro. Kyle was the next to go as she pulled him into a swamp having used her backpack as bait. It didn't do Kyle any favors that he was distracted by the local wildlife."

"A small reptile; which would eventually grow to be much bigger than a car." Raven adds, Beastboy gets a strangely pleased look in his eyes.

"By that time Kilowog and I had finished our sweeps, with Kilowog finding a camp site and several snares and me with nothing. Following a trail leading from the camp, Kilowog found the place Raven fought Sinestro only hours before. We found the energy residue from his ring there and decided to contact Mogo to get answers to what was going on, since we had lost contact to Katma and Kyle. Mogo directed us into a series of caves where we finally found Raven, only to get flattened in a direct confrontation. After we woke up, Ganthet appeared and explained it all to us. The Guardians had found out I was doing this and saw it fit that we get bush wacked for it, even called it good training since he knew we would try to improve ourselves because of it. So to sum it all up, I messed up, Raven strung me up for it. But she has my superior's approval and that is enough for me." He finishes.

"J'onn?" Superman asks.

"The test I exposed Raven to was a tradition from Mars, a ritual where two people walk each other's minds so they can get to know each other better. While Raven walked my mind and experienced Mars as I remember it, I walked hers with a guide sent from Azerath, the city I mentioned seeing. I cannot tell you everything that I saw while in there, but Raven is a complex person, a mosaic made of many emotions living within their own realms inside her mind. At first I was taken aback by what I saw, but my guide took time to explain it all to me. I've seen the things that make Raven happy; I've seen what makes her sad and I have seen what her unrestrained fury would wish on the world. And I have seen the person that comes into being when all of these things come together for the time they are able, before having to separate for the safety of others. I have no doubt anymore that Raven is a good person, and deeply whishes to be seen as one. But I must inform you of the evil that still lingers in her anger, as I was told, it is still bound to the will of her father." J'onn concludes.

"So what did she do in your head?" Shayera asks, mentally gearing up for her turn, which she was quietly feeling wasn't going to have much support from the others unless she came forth with something deeply incriminating.

"She saw a communal singing event and had lunch with my family." J'onn says, Raven could tell it hurt him a little to say it so she decided not to add that his boys thought she was a Martian with a different color.

"Thank you J'onn, Shayera?" Superman passes the imaginary torch to the winged woman.

"I initially asked Dr. Fate to prepare something that would be able to tell us which Raven is the dominant one. Unfortunately, as Raven pointed out after regaining consciousness, the spell used wasn't made for her kind. Fate tried, like J'onn, to enter her mind but was violently ejected. Later that night I was assaulted by Dr. Destiny, while I was told both Fate and Raven helped wake me, I have a hard time believing it was mere coincidence that he choose to strike at that time. I can't prove anything but I believe Raven and Destiny have a link." This raises a few quirked eyebrows and two questioning looks from the assembly. Nightwing raises his hand; Superman's nod allows him to speak.

"I was there when we caught Destiny; he was hiding in a warehouse at the Metropolis docks, one of Luthors. I took the ground floor while Raven took the first; she had changed shape while up there and while I was making my way up the stairs Destiny came running down. We collided and rolled down the stairs, resulting in Destiny breaking his arm. If I am any judge of anything, he seemed genuinely scared when Raven followed him down."

"So I heard, anyways Fate decided to terminate my testing round after Destiny was caught. After that I began looking into the Raven everyone else knew. Visiting Slade Wilson and various sites in Jump City, all which gave me nothing that said Raven has ill motives, besides from the Jump City tabloids. Most of those I asked would actually be happy if she came back, including one of the former Titan adversaries." The three male Titans turn to Raven in question.

"Rancid, he joined the police after I smacked him over the head with his bike. Apparently he thinks I'm cool." Raven says, with her tiredness slowly creeping into her voice.

"So what is your decision?" Batman asks.

"I am still not happy, but I have nothing to prove my distrust with." Shayera concludes while crossing her arms and leans back in her seat, even more annoyed that Fate didn't find anything to support her either when she finally asked him to be either for or against.

"Guess it's my turn then." Superman surmises. "As most of you know, I took Raven on patrol of Metropolis, to get to know her better we engaged in small talk. I learned she has a sharp wit as she guessed my profession merely by observing me. Also as some of you know, she saved me when Metallo showed up. It is by this that I will vouch for her, with the incident in question she could have just stepped aside and let Metallo finish me off, she did not." Superman finishes his tale, motioning for Flash to begin his part.

"Well as you know I tried thinking up all kinds of things that would work, where I came up short. Raven gave me an idea thought and I remembered Kid Flash is still dating Raven's old adversary; Jinx. And I thought, _"Those two must have fought a lot in the past, she must know what Raven is like." _So off to Chicago we went, I was surprised when Jinx was actually overjoyed to see Raven again, as was the Kid when he showed up. And they continued to scold us for thinking Raven is a bad person and letting me know twice that she can't control people's minds." He sighs and shrugs, while John rolls his eyes.

"Diana?" Superman says, knowing Flash's tales has ended; Raven lets on a tiny smirk as Diana begins.

"My test was originally simply to have a few rounds of sparring with Raven on Themyscira, working on the principle that you only really know someone until you have fought them. When we arrived, my original intentions were immediately overwritten by those of my mother who had worked out her own test after her visit here. I was not to actually have any direct contact with Raven, while she was put under Artemis' command."

"The grumpy red-head?" Flash interrupts, getting an elbow in his side from Hawkgirl. Partially for interrupting but also because he had often drawn a comparison between Shayera and Artemis and their attitudes.

"Yes, Raven was to train under her with a group of other Amazons; Io the smith. Antiope the finest archer, Penelope the unarmed combat trainer and Philipus, our magicians apprentice. Raven was allowed to use her powers during her stay and the others had orders in case she did use them. My own role in all of this was left to merely being an observer. On the second day there was an incident; Raven was under orders on not to be left alone at any time, but had separated from the others after playing a prank on Artemis. Left alone, Raven encountered Ares, who had come to Themyscira specifically for her. His goal was to persuade Raven to become his own champion by diving her mad with rage, to do this he forced memories and experiences upon her; memories of living the life of an Amazon at the time when Heracles, the demigod, enslaved them all. The army of Themyscira assembled when Ares was detected and we went into the military quarter in search of him, as you all know, my people have a troubled relationship with the God of Bloodshed. We found him when one of the barracks exploded, in the midst of the dust and rubble we found him fighting off Raven, who had turned into her other shape. Before we could give any orders, Raven revealed that she no longer saw the world as it is, but as it was. She thought she was buying the rest of us time to escape the mainland, while she distracted Ares whom she thought was in league with Heracles. I was able to prevent Raven from falling into Ares' claws and before she passed out, she declined his offer. When Raven woke up, she revealed she had experienced everything my sisters went thought those dark days." A strange silence seems to fill the room as Diana lets the information sink in, Cyborg stares at Raven in mute horror, Beastboy dumbfounded. The uninitiated Leaguers echo Beastboy's look after a few seconds Diana continues.

"When offered the possibility, Raven declined having the memories removed, saying no matter who removed them, they would still be there, waiting for the chance to return. When asked by my mother, Raven insisted on continuing the trials put before her, as the memories granted her a deeper sense of understanding the Amazons. After that I was allowed to join the troop with Raven, while into our second week we learned that the sky-father Zeus also has an interest in Raven. As he appeared before us and apologized for Ares' behavior, also he revealed that he had instructed our magician, Magala to change Raven's normal water to what we call godswater. Godswater is what we give to those we want to mold into true Amazons and right now Raven is running on a third of what is needed for the full transformation. After the visit by the Sky-Father, my mother decreed it was time for the group to show what they had learned. In the great arena on Themyscira, we saw Raven draw for an overall first place with Artemis after contests of archery, armed and unarmed combat. Afterwards I challenged Raven to the rematch I wanted, many bruises were traded between us, but I was the victor after a close fight that could have turned either way. After the fight, my mother praised Raven and wished to reward her." Diana looks to Raven. "Raven will you show them?" Raven nods at the request and undoes the wristwatch before peeling off her sleeves, revealing the silver bracelets hiding underneath them. "In front of most of the Amazon nation, my mother accepted Raven as one of us; she is now an Amazon of Themyscira. Correct sister?" Diana asks with a smirk.

"Correct, sister." Raven replies with her own smirk. Beastboy's and Cyborg's jaws hits the table as they stare wide-eyed at Raven, who continues to remain as if nothing exceptional is happening. Shayera is staring wide-eyed along with Flash while John and Superman is shocked while Batman, J'onn and Nightwing all remain quiet, though they are silently enjoying the emotions on display.

"I think it is safe to say that Raven has proven to the majority of the Founders, that she has what it takes to join our ranks." Batman says, breaking the silence. "On behalf of the Justice League, I would like to welcome Raven as our latest member."

"Thank you, I will try my hardest to live up to it." Raven says while actually giving them all a broad smile, it is after all a great day for her.

* * *

**Authors note: **This chapter concludes Book 1 of Raven Rising. Join me again to read about Starfire's rescue pans out, how the plans of others begin to tingle into existence and how our dark bird becomes lost in a place of horror in Raven Rising, Book 2; Scars.


End file.
